The captains of Ajax and PSV would rather lose the artificial grass in the Eredivisie than get rich. Dusan Tadic speaks in an extensive conversation with Football International fiercely against the false blades; Marco van Ginkel even refuses to play it, he says in the same interview. Both captains argue for only natural grass on the Eredivisie pitches.
Tadic already spoke negatively about the artificial grass at Sparta Rotterdam at the end of November, but also cites another club from the Eredivisie in the interview. “What do you think of Heracles Almelo? Oh, that’s such a disaster. The ball goes its own way there, you don’t have to dribble, the ball does dribble itself. It’s like playing on the moon.” Heracles held Ajax in-house to a 0-0 draw at the end of October; one of the five games before the winter break in which the team from Amsterdam lost points.
Dusan Tadic requests KNVB to ban synthetic turf fields
Tadic already requested the KNVB in November to ban artificial grass for good.
“Suppose I play together with Jens (Toornstra, ed.)”, Tadic continues. “I know that he has a strong right leg, so I respond to that, preferably a bit in the loop. It makes no sense at all. Artificial grass beats the heart out of football. That is why I think that as the top three in this area we have even more We have to work together. Let’s just not accept it anymore. This also affects the future of Dutch football.”
Van Ginkel goes one step further. “I don’t even play on artificial grass anymore, after all my injuries.” The PSV captain was out of circulation for no less than 983 days between May 2018 and January 2021 after prolonged knee complaints. “It might be possible”, van Ginkel estimates, “but it doesn’t feel right, I subconsciously hold back, so then I think: Never mind.” In addition to Sparta and Heracles, SC Cambuur also plays on artificial grass in the Eredivisie. PEC Zwolle and RKC Waalwijk already switched to natural grass in the summer of 2020.