European champions Paris Saint-Germain are set to play their home games on Irish turf this season – after replacing the pitch at the Parc des Princes stadium with 700 rolls of grass imported from Ireland.
A series of heatwaves in France this summer damaged the playing surface at the stadium, forcing the club to play its first “home” match away to Rennes on August 23rd, for which it incurred a €150,000 fine.
In a bid to rectify the issue before PSG’s match against Monaco on Friday, its head groundsman Jonathan Calderwood travelled to Ireland to go turf shopping with his team last week, according to L’Equipe.
They chose the Irish product ahead of several other options and 700 rolls measuring a metre wide and up to 10 metres long were shipped to France and installed from August 26th to 28th.
The gardening team then got to work to promote root development and a series of tests took place to assess how the turf had settled and whether it would be ready for the match against Monaco.
Despite the short time frame, the new pitch has now got the green light and is ready to host a top-level match without posing any danger to the players, the club has said.
The cost of replacing the heat-damaged pitch with the imported Irish turf has not been disclosed. However, L’Equipe reported that estimates exceeding €500,000 are not unusual for this type of project.