By John Kmitta
FIFA World Cup 26 is an unprecedented undertaking that will see the world’s largest and most prestigious soccer tournament played out in 16 host stadiums across Canada, Mexico and the United States. A groundbreaking event such as this called for groundbreaking research and years of preparation.
To ensure the best-performing and safest soccer pitches – as well as surface uniformity across such vast geography, climates, and both indoor and outdoor venues – FIFA entrusted the multi-year turfgrass research effort to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT) and Michigan State University (MSU).
According to John Sorochan, Ph.D., distinguished professor of Turfgrass Science and Management in UT’s Herbert College of Agriculture, the road to World Cup 26 has been long and winding. Paving that road began more than a decade ago at the STMA Conference.
“Everything’s about relationships,” said Sorochan. “As education chair for the STMA Conference, I did a general session about turfgrass from the other side of the pond, and brought over some people from the UK to speak about what they do in Europe in terms of sports field management for their soccer pitches.”
One of those speakers was Alan Ferguson who, at the time, was head groundsman for England’s Football Association (FA), overseeing St. George’s Park and Wembley Stadium. Sorochan – who has represented the NFLPA for Field Safety and Performance, and was tasked with inspecting and testing the fields for international NFL games – reconnected with Ferguson at Wembley Stadium in 2016.
Ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, FIFA tasked Ferguson with overseeing 6 of the 12 pitches in Russia. Then, in 2019, FIFA appointed Ferguson to the role of senior pitch management manager, overseeing everything related to the pitches for all tournaments. At that time, Ferguson and FIFA were already looking ahead to World Cup 26 in North America. They planned for the tournament to increase from 32 nations to 48, and set out with the bold vision for 16 stadiums – nearly a third of which would be indoor stadiums.
“Alan had the vision that he wanted evidence-based research data, and he asked me to lead that,” said Sorochan. “I agreed; but it’s a really big project that would need more than one university. So UT became the lead and we subcontract Michigan State – but we’re 50/50 on the research. As we approach this project, we work together.”
By 2019, Sorochan was having regular meetings with Ferguson; Kaj Heyral, group leader infrastructure management for FIFA; and John “Trey” Rogers, Ph.D., professor of turfgrass management MSU. The group had outlined timelines and initiatives, but had really just begun brainstorming concepts when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. While FIFA’s focus had to shift to whether there would even be a 2022 World Cup in Qatar, researchers at UT and MSU had to move forward with their efforts to identify the best possible playing surfaces for 2026.
With that in mind, the researchers at UT and MSU looked at temporary surfaces that allow for expedited installation and removal. As such, the focus was always on a shallow pitch profile.
Simulating venue conditions
The research team wanted to simulate the indoor conditions of the domed stadiums, so FIFA built a 5,000-square-foot simulator dome at UT. The facility is outfitted with grow lights and climate control, which allows researchers to look at growing grass with zero sunlight (100% artificial light).
“What we’re doing inside is taking a lot of the general knowledge that we have for managing grass, and applying it to an environment we consider a microclimate,” said Rhys Fielder, project research lead at UT, whose focus has been on indoor testing for the domed stadiums. “We are removing the sun and natural environmental elements from the equation.”
According to Fielder, initial research focused on determining the amount of artificial light needed to maintain high-end growth and high-performing fields over the course of a six- to seven-week period from the time the grass is installed to the end of the tournament.
Of the 16 FIFA World Cup 26 sites, five are domed stadiums. Of those, four are indoor climate controlled (Atlanta, Houston, Dallas and Vancouver). The fifth, SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, is a domed stadium, but does not have air conditioning and is open on the sides to allow airflow.
“We’re managing more of the overall environment given that we have complete control of the irrigation, the lighting and everything that goes into it,” said Fielder. “We can then use testing devices to see how that may affect something indoors versus what we previously know about being outdoors.”
In addition to indoor research being conducted inside the FIFA building at UT, the two universities collaborated over the past several years on outdoor research to homogenize the playing surfaces. According to Sorochan, having MSU students and technicians come to UT to work in the FIFA building has made the relationship a truly integrated partnership.
According to Kyley Dickson, Ph.D., researcher and associate director Center for Athletic Field Safety at UT, one of the first tests performed throughout the research was a ball rebound test, because it is quick and easy to test for the FIFA-defined standards for ideal ball rebound.
When researching the various systems and options for the shallow pitch profile, the ball rebound test allowed researchers to quickly rule out surface combinations that would not be acceptable.
“You can drop a ball and usually it will bounce up somewhere between your thigh and your waist,” said Dickson. “In several of these surface combinations we dropped it and it came up to my ankle, and we knew that’s not a viable option.”
Measuring performance, playability and uniformity
A key component throughout the research has been the use of the fLEX testing device, which measures the performance and playability of surfaces, as well as the uniformity of the field. The device utilizes a 3D-printed foot that strikes the surface, and sensors record what the athlete would feel as they travel across the surface.
“We’re able to go across the field without a human and use a device that’s repeatable over time so we can see how an athlete would do and what they’re feeling,” said Dickson. “We’re taking some very complex interactions with the surface and distilling it down to something that is very easy to digest for the field manager.”
fLEX, which won UT’s inaugural Chancellor’s Innovation Fund Award, helps researchers determine surface hardness and traction, as well as athlete-surface interactions such as lateral force, the energy return the athlete is feeling, and stability of the foot. As the research team worked to find a solution for the playing surfaces for World Cup 26, fLEX allowed them to evaluate their options quickly and consistently.
During the fLEX testing for World Cup 26, researchers used a 68-kilogram athlete, which is the average weight of the athlete in the last men’s World Cup. Adidas provided the most common soccer cleats used by World Cup athletes, and researchers used that boot on every surface that was tested with fLEX to maintain consistency across surfaces.
“The bare minimum of all the research has to be in this high-performing range,” said Dickson. “If it’s not, then we throw it out. If it met those corridors, then we could continue on to further research.”
Discovering a winning recipe
The focus of the shallow pitch profile research was sod on plastic placed directly on top of various system combinations including synthetic turf, shock pads, drainage layers, rubber and more, said Dickson.
“We tried a lot of stuff that didn’t work, and that’s part of research,” he said. “We finally got to one product that gave us a very similar result when it’s on top of concrete to the actual sand rootzone.”
Added Sorochan, “We looked at probably 60 different combinations, and we came down to an 85mm (2.5-inch) Permavoid with geotextile and roughly 2-inch-thick sod that provides the same ball bounce as a 12-inch sand rootzone,” said Sorochan. “When we put our fLEX machine on it and struck it, it gave the same ground reaction forces as if it were on 12 inches of sand. That was a ‘wow’ moment.”
The process saw the shallow pitch profile go from 1-meter-by-1-meter trials to outdoor plots at MSU to indoor plots in the FIFA building at UT then to a larger-scale plot at UT. Eventually, the shallow pitch profile of choice was used at AT&T Stadium in Dallas for a friendly match between Canada and Mexico, which resulted in players raving about the condition of the pitch and how well it played.
“We went from these little one-square-meter plots, testing all these little things, to it actually working,” said Sorochan. “Not only that, the time to install and the time to remove were lowered, which means fewer materials, less labor hours, and lower costs.”
Dickon agreed that the surface combination they settled on was the most surprising aspect of the research.
“The product that ended up working, Permavoid, is a water collection system,” he said. “We tried it, and that one was one of the most surprising things. We were like, how is this working? We’re getting the performance of a 12-inch sand rootzone as far as the ball goes and as far as fLEX goes, and yet it’s sod directly on top of this product that is three inches tall.”
According to Dickson, using Permavoid also led to better air movement and healthier turfgrass.
“I thought we were going to have several different shock pads and then try all this different stuff,” he added. “It ended up being one of the simpler solutions – just one product; you put it in, put grass on top, and you’re ready to go so. Sometimes simpler is better.”
Capturing data and fine tuning next steps
According to Sorochan, the next year plus will involve capturing as much data as possible from the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup 2025, then fine tuning things as World Cup 26 approaches.
“Perfection is what’s expected, so we’re doing different overseeding trials and we’re starting to mock each stadium,” said Sorochan. “We have the schedule. Dallas has the most games, but some domed stadiums have more consecutive games. So, how do we adjust the lights on and off to make sure that the grass is going to continue to grow and be healthy?”
For World Cup 26, the eight stadiums with synthetic turf will take out their artificial surface and build a pitch. However, for the Club World Cup – starting June 14, 2025 – there will be five synthetic turf stadiums that are going to build a pitch over the artificial turf.
According to Sorochan, baseline data shows that geotextile and sod can’t just be laid on top of the synthetic.
“There are variances in concert flooring – some of them are too thin and you still get a trampolining effect and you feel the artificial turf underneath,” he said. “When you drop the ball, it doesn’t bounce back up like it should for the FIFA standards.”
To find a solution for the inaugural Club World Cup this year, the research team built a 30,000-square-foot synthetic turf plot at UT to test a variety of systems on top of the synthetic turf.
Said Sorochan, “We’ve got all sorts of systems – from plywood to aluminum flooring and the Permavoid shallow pitch profiles – including building up layers of sand above the artificial turf and reinforced flooring to see what we need in order to be like a natural pitch with 12 inches of sand.”
The research team will continue to research alternative grow lights and new grow light technologies, including different wavelengths of light that could be used to grow the grass faster or short and stunted.
“Now that we understand how everything’s going to react based on all the different elements that we can control, we’re looking at directly applying it to the schedule that we have available,” said Fielder.
According to Fielder, the plan is for the grass for 2026 to go in three weeks prior to the first game, which will allow a three-week establishment period during which the grow lights will run uninterrupted for 12-hour cycles.
“That gives us 22 moles of light, which is what we found optimal,” said Fielder. “The lights will run for 12 hours, be off for 12 hours, and will be on that three-week increment on and off, almost uninterrupted.”
Once the match schedule is in effect, the various venues will have sporadic amounts of off days between matches, and the goal is to get as much recovery as possible during those short windows.
Challenges
One of the biggest challenges for researchers is the sheer distance between host sites, as well as the diverse climates across the three countries.
“We’ve got 16 stadiums, and the farthest two stadiums – Vancouver and Mexico City – are 3,000 miles apart, and the stadiums range from domes to a field at 7,200 feet,” said Sorochan.
According to Sorochan, some of the on-site challenges will be wear patterns and traffic – especially due to pregame rehearsals and opening ceremonies.
“Each stadium wants an opening ceremony, and they want to rehearse on the field,” he said. “In some instances, that causes more damage to the grass than the actual game itself. In the indoor stadiums, it also takes away from when the grow lights can be on. There are going to be periods – match day minus one and match day – that the lights won’t be on at all. So they’re going to go 24 to 48 hours without light. If they want to have a rehearsal match day minus two and we have to take the lights off, that’s going to be a challenge.”
Proper irrigation for the shallow profile turf in the domed stadiums is another aspect the researchers are examining.
“We started implementing wetting agent trials, because if we do a shallow profile the irrigation is going to be different,” said Sorochan. “On match day, when they want to water five times before the game to get the grass blades wet, can we adjust that because it doesn’t dry out as fast in the indoor stadiums? They’ll stay wet and be consistent throughout the game a lot better than a hot, dry day in Kansas City.”
According to Fielder, the training sites and base camps in each host city add even another layer of consideration.
“It’s a challenge alone having 16 premier stadiums that are going to play as close as possible to one another throughout the tournament, to now we’re talking about 100 pitches at the 49 different training sites that need to be consistent,” said Fielder. “So we’re just providing a blueprint to work from overall, and then taking other people’s opinions into account and working with individual field managers.”
Sharing the blueprint for success
The research team pointed out that the blueprint for the World Cup 26 pitches is a guideline for the field managers at the host sites.
“We’re going to come up with recipes or guidelines because every stadium is being managed à la carte,” said Sorochan. “We’re trying to bring 16 à la carte recipes or guidelines of management that will be homogenized across all 16 stadiums for consistency and uniformity.”
Sorochan added that interaction with the field managers at the host sites will vary from stadium to stadium, but his team is in constant communication with the pitch management team at FIFA.
“As researchers, we’re just here to provide evidence-based data, be a sounding board, and give guidance for what we think is going to be successful in each venue,” he said.
Eight of the 16 venues being used don’t currently have natural turfgrass. As a result, lessons learned throughout the research at UT and MSU will be essential to creating the guidelines for the event.
“We’re working on a very small scale, but we can recreate everything that we do in an 8-week period with multiple runs throughout a year,” said Fielder. “I want to make sure that whatever failures I incur happen at that small volume. That way it’s completely avoidable in 2026.
“Not everything we do is going to be A+B=C,” Fielder added. “You have all these different options that come with each stadium, and they all have their different construction and infrastructure. We want to provide a base for them to work from; and if there are any questions, we have research to be able to pull from and recommend how we would react to a particular scenario.”
According to Dickson, the research team would also like to have as many fLEX devices as possible for World Cup 26 so that they can monitor the pitches from day to day and game to game throughout the tournament.
The goal is for the field manager at the host sites to run the fLEX device, the basic operation of which only takes a few minutes to learn.
Said Dickson, “Hopefully they will be able to do it as we’re going, and hopefully we get daily information to help increase the research so that we can make future World Cups better.”
Added Fielder, “We’re just trying to be an asset and provide guidance and help not only the 16 field managers involved, but the 200- to 300-hundred-plus individuals involved this project. All we’re trying to do is play our part and bring in this tournament to North America.”
Spurring innovation and leaving a legacy
According to Dickson, having turfgrass in domes that will not have direct sunlight has spurred innovation – not just at UT and MSU, but from sports field managers and technology providers throughout the country.
“That’s how we found a lot of these different options,” he said. “But the innovation wouldn’t have been driven forward without FIFA. It definitely challenged the innovative side of us, and it’s been very exciting to be part of the cutting-edge research.”
That research will have lasting impact well beyond World Cup 26, and the effect will trickle down to making youth fields better and safer.
“We’re looking at health, safety and wellness of players, and I think FIFA is going to create a legacy that is going to raise the bar for future expectations,” said Sorochan. “So many secondary and tertiary benefits are going to come from this for not just the sports turf world, but the turfgrass world as a whole.”
Said Dickson, “Once we were able to come up with a solution, to be able to try it out and see the performance aspect has been really exciting. You are going to see a safer surface that performs better for everyone.”
Added Sorochan, “It all started with the vision of Alan Ferguson, and then FIFA supporting these efforts and bringing Alan’s vision to reality. That has been groundbreaking game changer – pun intended.”
John Kmitta is associate publisher and editorial brand director of SportsField Management magazine.