The hallowed Wembley turf will soon be on the back of a lorry, a soggy reminder of England’s failure. The Wembley pitch has become a national embarrassment, a quagmire at the centre of a £757 million stadium that has left experts befuddled over how the FA could allow a showpiece match to descend into muddy farce.

England’s defeat by Croatia on Wednesday is bound to trigger an inquiry into whether important games should be ring-fenced in the calendar so that Wembley’s turf is guaranteed to be in mint condition. The one-off American football match played at Wembley almost a month ago, also in atrocious conditions, was blamed for cutting up the pitch.

A Wembley Stadium spokesperson said: “We accept that the playing surface was not ideal. With a diverse range and number of events, we face some tough challenges in regards to the pitch. We will be reviewing the event calendar going forward and developing a long-term pitch strategy so that we can fulfil that event calendar without compromising the quality of the pitch.”

Indeed, no sooner was the whistle blown on England’s debacle than the planning started for the Race of Champions, a motor racing contest on December 16 featuring star names such as Michael Schumacher and Jen-son Button. That means pulling up the turf and replacing it with 1,800 tonnes of tarmac to create a racing circuit.

Expert View

The faults that lie deep within the nation's football will not be cured simply by handing Steve McClaren his P45

Martin Samuel

• More

• Post a comment

BACKGROUND

• O’Neill rules himself out of running

• Same old routine for Barwick and Co

• £2.5m for worst English manager

• English game paralysed by fear of the unknown

BACKGROUND

• The contenders

• Defeat puts paid to hopes of £2bn bonanza

• McClaren's epitaph: ‘Worse than Graham Taylor’

• Former coach faces fight to rebuild reputation

BACKGROUND

• From 1 to 11: why number was up for England

• Beckham is the blueprint by which to rebuild national game

• Talisman expects backlash but is not retiring

• Carson hoping to bounce back

BACKGROUND

• Wembley authorities unable to explain quagmire

• England were a shower but I’d do it all again

• Time to support the other red and whites

• England got what they deserved, says Corluka

BACKGROUND

• England among also-rans in World Cup seedings

• Players’ egos responsible for failure, says Keane

• Own Goal

Multimedia

• Vote for the next England manager

• England's ten lowest moments ever

• England fans: let off steam here

Related Links

• Time to support the other red and whites

• Players’ egos responsible for failure, says Keane

Despite Wembley insisting that the groundstaff could not have done more on Wednesday the finger of blame, inevitably, will be pointed at Steve Welch, the grounds manager. However, he is working within constraints that would challenge any groundsman in the world.

The England match was the 26th event on the Wembley pitch since Welch took control in March. He had no say in its construction, which was handled by the Sports Turf Research Institute, an independent contractor that selected the type of turf, a French rye grass, from 250 varieties. Under the pitch is a latticework of pipes, claimed to be capable of draining a foot of water from the pitch every hour – a fact that would surprise spectators who watched players sliding through a swamp.

The turf has been relaid once this year, after a concert by Metallica, the rock band, in July, and another £150,000 will be spent on relaying it again after the Race of Champions.

David Saltman, who was in charge of the Millennium Stadium pitch in Cardiff for two years, believes that the Wembley authorities will have to face up to the prospect of relaying the turf before every crucial fixture. “I don’t know why the pitch wasn’t relaid before the England match, given its importance,” he said. “Questions have to be asked about what is going on.

“Wembley is supposed to be our national jewel. It is the one stadium name that everyone around the world knows, yet we can’t get the pitch even half-right for such a big occasion. Wembley might not want the expense of relaying the turf for each big event but, if that is the price to be paid, then they should do it.”

Saltman, now in charge at Molineux, Wolverhampton Wanderers’ ground, is just one expert groundsman adopting an almost British Rail-like tone, wondering whether the Wembley pitch is suffering from the wrong sort of soil. The “soil” is actually described as a medium, which is 95 per cent sand and interspersed with fine polypropylene fibres to help stability and drainage. So far, neither of those qualities have seemed evident.

The Sports Turf Research Institute refused to comment yesterday but Slaven Bilic, the Croatia coach, was dubious about the pitch even after his team’s short training session on it on Tuesday. “The top looks soft but underneath it is hard and very slippy, like ice,” he said. Slippy enough to act not so much like ice but a giant banana skin for England.

Never rains but pours

7.2 Millimetres of rainfall on Wembley in three hours from 7pm on Wednesday
476 Millimetres of rainfall on Wembley since stadium opened in March
750 Tonnes of turf cover the Wembley pitch
150,000 Blades of grass in each square metre
£150,000 Cost of relaying the Wembley turf
50,000 Gallons of water can be pumped from the pitch in an hour