FIFA Senior Pitch Management Manager Alan Ferguson joined SportsField Management magazine Editor John Kmitta at SFMA Conference earlier this year to discuss World Cup 26. As the World Cup kicks off this month, we share excerpts from that interview, which originally appeared on the SportsField Management Podcast.
SportsField Management (SFM): You’ve been at the forefront with FIFA at the SFMA Conference for several years. Why has it been important for you and for FIFA to be involved with SFMA, the conference, and to share your messaging with its members?
Alan Ferguson: From the moment that the announcement was formalized that the World Cup would be coming as a triple host to the USA, Mexico and Canada, we were coming from the smallest tournament footprint in Qatar to the biggest edition with the expansion from 32 participating nations to 48. One of the first things that struck me was how are we going to do this? it’s just a vast, vast tournament footprint. We were never going to be able to do it as we were structured in Qatar. But I knew through previous associations with people over here in the U.S. and with the SFMA that’s one way forward. I’m a member of the GMA in the UK, so we have similarities and synergies there. I thought this was probably the most important connection we had to make early on, beyond the research facility that we did with the UT and MSU.
Photo by John Kmitta.
So I think I can’t thank the SFMA enough for opening their doors, allowing us not just one time to open the general session, but three consecutive times. I’m not sure too many people have been afforded that privilege, but we very much see it as a privilege. It’s been an honor to see 1,500 to 2,000 people sat in front of you from across the industry. As I alluded to in the general session, there’s so many moving parts. I’m not ashamed to put my hand up and say maybe I underestimated the importance of the roles of some of these moving parts, particularly around the sod farmers. So it’s been really useful for that; there’s been a coming together, and a fantastic collaboration.
Many people look at games of football – or soccer, as you guys still call it – and think it is just about us cutting the grass, painting the lines, putting the goals up. But we have other functional area colleagues in TV, media, broadcast; team services; the ceremony team – all that show around the side of the pitch that has to come on to the pitch at times – that we need a top level engagement with.
You have a number of global experts in the States, and lot of them are members of SFMA. So it’s been absolutely invaluable. And I can say without fear of contradiction, I wouldn’t be sitting here today in January 2026 feeling pretty good about myself and feeling pretty good about where we are – having come out of the Club World Cup and where it was a tournament in its own right, but it was a chance for us to stick our toe in the water – to see so many SFMA members who help deliver Club World Cup and who will also deliver World Cup and additional people who will come into those roles as well. It’s heartening and it’s comforting in equal measure for me as FIFA senior pitch manager to know that we’ve got so many people all on the same page, all wanting the same objective to make this the biggest and best World Cup ever.
SFM: We’ve documented the efforts of FIFA, the University of Tennessee, Michigan State, and the years of research and testing that went into preparing for this and ensuring a consistent, natural, safe playing surface. What are you most proud of with this multi-year effort, and what do you feel will be the lasting impact of World Cup 26 on the sports field management industry?
Ferguson: I think there are two or three things readily spring to mind. One of the biggest challenges with regards to the stadium selection for the tournament was that eight of the buildings weren’t typically soccer venues. They are used to host in NFL, and the configuration of their bowls was narrower than what we are typically used to picking up for an international FIFA tournament. So just seeing how these venues have adapted to be able to take in the FIFA regulation size field; but then to see how they typically play on synthetic on a concrete floor. There’s not a traditional root zone as we would want there. So the research teams came up with the shallow pitch profile. To see that rolled out in places like Dallas AT&T for the first time was just excitement off the scale for us.
Not everything goes to plan the first time out, and many times the researchers have to go back to the drawing board. They never quit, and I think it’s a huge credit to the undergrads at both universities that they stuck to the tasks that we gave them. I remember going to my people in FIFA asking for the initial $3 million. I never thought I would get it, I’m not going to lie, because they didn’t know why I wanted $3 million to research grass. Now they get it. When we had FIFA President Infantino at Tennessee last February, he hit me with a number of questions and things that he wanted to know ahead of a press conference that he was doing at UT. He was only supposed to be there a couple of hours, but four-and-a-half hours later, he was blown away and acknowledged genuinely how amazing it was.
So that was a big one for me, knowing that we’re going to leave a legacy. And I’ve been keen not only to have UT and MSU for 2026, but that they stay our global research center for the 2030 tournament, the 2034 men’s tournament, and also the 27 women’s tournament in Brazil, and 31 in the U.S., Mexico, Jamaica and Costa Rica. So it doesn’t stop here. I think that would be tragic. I think for the investment and money, time and effort, if we were to cut loose and go after the final whistle in July, I think that would be tragic not only for the industry, but for the football whole family as a whole, because not many lead bodies have invested in the science.
I knew we needed research. We had a small research center that was set up in Qatar for 2022, but it was much smaller scale because we were in one place – 74 miles from north to south, and you could see all 8 stadiums and all 32 training sites. Here is a different ballgame altogether. The model worked, and was a good idea, but it needed to be upscaled. The turf research universities here in the U.S. are widely, worldly renowned as leaders in that field, I think all we wanted to do was plug in to who had the best systems of research, who was the most advanced. And these two came out on top. I knew that we were a pretty safe bet going with both of them.
I remember sitting down with John [Sorochan] in the East End of London when he was over doing the NFL. I had just left Wembley and started with FIFA, I’d come through the Russian tournament, and I said to him, “This is my vision. This is what I see. Do you think you can deliver it?” And yes, he could.
So I think there’s a fantastic opportunity for legacy, the research being one of them. So many of the buildings in America have quite a diverse business plan. So they may have some soccer matches, some NFL matches, they might do some concerts. So they need to flip in and out throughout the year. I’d like to think that some of the research that we’ve brought to the market here in the United States will stay. We’ve had people at a number of venues speak to us, asking for specifications. We’ve been delighted to share that.
Then with the evolution of the MLS – many of the clubs are putting together hybrid pitches now because they have bespoke stadiums. We’ve been very happy to work and collaborate with that and connect them with people. So the networking just continues to grow, which can only be good for us as the world organization because that’s what we should do. It’s really great to see the MLS developing in the way that it is. You see players coming across from America to Europe, and Europe back to America as the seasons overlap. It might not be so much going forward when you realign with our season, but up until now it’s been really good. And it’s really good quality football on both sides. They’re also talking about the quality of facilities being equal, and that never happened before.
When I had some of the press conferences at Club World Cup, some of the European guys, especially the younger ones, were caught out a little bit. They just didn’t know what they were getting. But I remember listening to England striker Harry Kane and he said what a wonderful opportunity it was for players that were probably going to be at the World Cup to come over a year out, experience shallow pitch profiles, experience the heat, experience game delays because of adverse weather – all things that are normal in the U.S., but maybe not normal where they play the game.
So I think there’s a number of fantastic legacy opportunities. These undergrads are going out into the industry to top jobs with stadiums, sod farms, or as consultants, and keeping that momentum going that’s been built up. I think that will be the biggest legacy that FIFA can leave.
SFM: You have mentioned the challenges of managing this tournament across such diverse climates, across the three nations. Was there anything that stood out to you in terms of the biggest individual challenges? Was there anything that really stood out to you that you were proud that this team was able to overcome and figure out.
Ferguson: I was really nervous about the domed stadiums, because typically we play in open-air stadiums and I know we had to change some of our regulations to accommodate that. But you know, when you play in a domed stadium, you have to recreate the natural environment that the grass wants because we’re not playing on synthetic, we’re playing on real grass; we’re playing on a living plant. You have to recreate airflow and light, and you have to manage moisture. That was really, really difficult. And I wasn’t sure how we were going to do it.
I knew the research would kind of point us in the right direction. I never could have dreamt that it would be so comprehensive in what it’s delivered. And I think that’s where we’ll be enormously in debt to the research teams for sticking to the tasks. There are more than 200 individual tasks that have been undertaken in the research period to give us that. And never has a tournament in the States had to deal with so many matches as the Club World Cup did. Typically, it’s been one or two pitches and then it’s been stripped out and a new layer of sod comes in. But for a player, it’s the worst thing you can do because it breaks the consistency. It makes them a bit wary of what they’re playing on. They don’t get that feel coming through their feet, so their brain’s telling them that they’re not on the surface that they want to be on. We never got that. We got a bit of a complaint about fields being slow, but you know, we were playing in 40-degrees-plus (C) of heat. We were kicking off in the middle of the day, so it wasn’t a major surprise. But even out of that, after the first couple of match days players said we need to water the pitches more. I’m thinking we just can’t, because within 20 minutes of the game starting, the leaf’s becoming dry. But then, I was sitting in the HQ in Miami, and when they stopped for a cooling break, I spoke to the competition colleagues and said, “Why can’t the grass have a cooling break?” We got ahold of our directors, and within three or four hours, it was agreed that when the players stop for a cooling break, the grass gets a cooling break for the 12:00 and 3:00 kickoffs. So even that evolution in that short term has been really, really cool.
With the domed stadiums now, we’ve been able to understand how we can manage a consistent environment so the grass does think it’s outside. It could be baking hot outside, but inside, in Celsius, it’s maybe 23 or 24 degrees. We’re using cool-season grasses instead of warm-season grasses. The players will appreciate that because the biggest challenge for any tournament team is to get the pitches consistent over every stadium. That’s 16 stadiums in three countries. You’re coming from stadiums at altitude in Mexico, right through the U.S. up to Canada to Vancouver and Toronto. That’s one hell of a challenge. But I think the guys and the girls have put us in a fantastic position to do that.
SFM: We’ve been discussing and looking ahead to World Cup 26 for a long time. You and your team and your partners have invested all this time and research. 2026 is here. What does the lead up look like?
Ferguson: It’s the final stretch. I think we have the huge benefit of having had the Club World Cup. I would have loved all the venues to have been venues for the Club World Cup. because everyone involved in that would have had a chance to see us up close as an organization. It couldn’t happen because of a number of reasons. But I’m a lot happier than what I thought I would be at this stage, because a lot of things that we did at the Club World Cup, like the shallow pitch profile and the work of the sod farmers done. We only had five and six days to install pitches in stadiums [for Club World Cup]. Normally for a FIFA tournament, we have maybe 12 to 14 months. and that didn’t happen. So you had to transfer that first part out to the farm. Seeing all that working and seeing that coming through as well as it did was really pleasing. So, we’ve been able to tell each stadium what they need to do. There’s a broad agreement across the whole tournament footprint, which is unusual.
I don’t think there’s another event anywhere in the world that carries the commercial pressure on things like pitches to actually be there when they’re needed. You know, we have marquee sponsors who want to make TV adverts halfway through the World Cup. We know that’s going to come – that’s normal in our life. But I think everybody’s on the same page. So I’m sitting here reasonably relaxed. I never take everything for granted. I won’t get complacent. I won’t allow the team to get complacent because we’re still working with nature. But I think we’re ready. We’ve seen how diverse the climate here can be over the three countries. I think we know what we’ve got to do. We had super feedback from the teams in the Club World Cup about everything from playing in adverse heat to dry grass. So I’m quietly confident.
I think it will be the spectacle that our president and council want it to be, that we want it to be. I think the U.S., Mexico and Canada will be able to look back on this and say, “Boy, did we deliver a cracking tournament.”
A lot of people around the world that watch football, the millions that watch the game, will never know what’s come out of these two research centers. The research has been the game changer, without a doubt. If we hadn’t had that, I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you today as relaxed as what I am.
SFM: Looking even further ahead, 2030 World Cup is going to be yet another historic effort. You prepare for a tournament across multiple continents. Can you share a little bit about what the planning for 2030 looks like at this point and how the lessons learned from World Cup 26 are going to impact your approach for 2030?
Ferguson: The 26 tournaments already benefit in 2030 and 2034. For our third field day at Knoxville in February and we put together a futures group for hosts Morocco, Portugal, Spain, and Saudi to come to Knoxville to see the lighthouse building and speak to the research team. Work is underway in all of these countries on stadiums with an eye on the tournaments, but we need to have a consistency. I’ve seen some very futuristic things coming out of Saudi, which is great, but will they work in the cold light of day? And that’s So we’ve already seen a transfer of knowledge from this tournament going to future tournament hosts. That’s how it should be. When I look at the 2030 footprint, I’ve just come from Morocco towards the end of last year where we put the under-17 Women’s World Cup. It’s five years we’ve put it in Morocco for to allow the Moroccans to catch up and learn tournament football. They’ve built some fantastic stadiums, and they’ve already incorporated things like vacuum systems and hybrid stitching. They just need to understand now how to maintain that to the same high level that we’re seeing over here. And that’s the bit of knowledge transfer that’s already started.
So already this tournament is hugely benefiting our future tournaments. and that will help FIFA to bring the consistency around our pitch requirements. Spain and Portugal are traditional soccer playing countries. In Argentina, we go down to River Plate for the 2030 tournament; it’s one game, but the whole stadium has just been reconstructed – new pitch, vacuum system, the whole lot. There is a little bit more to do in Uruguay and Paraguay for the single games, but we’ll be able to deliver that. Then we drop back to Europe. So, you know, already there’s a really strong foundation being laid, but based on 2026. So that passing of the baton is already well underway. And I think it puts us – especially on the pitch management side – in a really strong position.
Listen to the full interview, and other great conversations, on the SportsField Management Podcast, available via sportsfieldmanagementonline.com or on your favorite podcast platforms.