Photo Courtesy Mamelodi Sundowns.
Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has clarified that the club is not to blame for the condition of the pitch at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria.
The stadium, which is the home to Sundowns, hosted a Betway Premiership fixture involving Sundowns and Orlando Pirates which the home side won 4-1 on Saturday.
However, speaking after the game, Pirates coach Jose Riveiro took issues with the condition of the pitch and further stated it was not supposed to host a high caliber match.
“It’s a pity that this game must be played in this field because it’s not helping anybody. It’s not helping the game, the football, or the risk of injuries,” said Riveiro.
“Every single action there is a high risk of injuries for both teams. Not for a second you must take this comment like we lost this game because of the field. Not even close. But it’s true that the game was played in very difficult conditions for Sundowns and Pirates as well.”
In his response, Cardoso said it was not the responsibility of Sundowns to take care of the pitch insisting “we don’t own the stadium.”
But there are things we don’t control. We don’t control the events that happen here; we don’t control the games that happen here. The stadium is not ours, so it’s not our responsibility because the pitch is like this,” said Cardoso as quoted by FARPost.
“We fight to have it better, we pay to have it better, so we work on the pitch to have it better. And at the end of the game, I don’t know if you saw: I was on the pitch, speaking with the greenkeeper, and he was already explaining to me what kind of work he was starting tomorrow [Sunday].”
He continued: “I can confess that during the week, every day, I received reports on the work that has been done on the pitch. Our team of people, our greenkeepers, were at the venue every day working on this pitch; otherwise, it would be even worse.
“So we work as much as possible for the quality of the pitch; I defend as much as possible the quality of the pitch because we want to play good football; we want to defend a spectacle. I even said to the people from the club, ‘from now on, except the big games’ I prefer to play at Lucas Moripe [Stadium].”
The defeat left Pirates nine points behind table leaders Sundowns, but they still have one game in hand.
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