SIS Pitches, an international leader in sports pitches, has capped off an incredible period of growth after installing surfaces at venues being used in this year’s AFC Asian Cup, the third major football tournament the British-based company has supplied for in under six months.
The UK-based company provided pitches at six of the 12 World Cup stadia in Russia last July, including the final at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow before landing a full-service contract for venues being used at the Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates in December.
Now, SIS Pitches has secured work at seven of the eight venues being used at the AFC Asian Cup which is also taking place in the United Arab Emirates, completing a hat-trick of high-profile football tournaments where their services are being used.
Their work spanned more than 56,000 square metres grass in total across all seven stadium venues.
The seven stadium grounds SIS Pitches delivered services at for the tournament are:
Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi – The pitch was re-turfed and installed by SIS Pitches last year using their technologically advanced hybrid pitch system SISGrass. As well as the final on 1st February, the stadium will host seven tournament matches and 16 pre-match training sessions in 27 days.
Mohamed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi – Full pitch rebuild in 2013 and has since been maintained by SIS Pitches. The surface will host six tournament matches and 12 pre-match training sessions in the space of 18 days, including one of the semi-finals.
Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain – Full pitch build in 2013 and has been maintained by SIS Pitches. The company installed SISGrass at the stadium in 2018 in time for the Club World Cup. The pitch will host eight matches and 16 pre-match training sessions in 23 days, including one of the semi-final fixtures.
Al-Maktoum Stadium, Dubai – SIS Pitches installed a new pitch using SISGrass last year after the stadium was built. It will take on six matches and 12 pre-match training sessions in 18 days.
Al Nahyan Stadium, Abu Dhabi – After the stadium was upgraded last year for the AFC Asian Cup, SIS Pitches rebuilt the pitch with a new rootzone, installed new grass from its turf farm and installed a new irrigation system. It will host five matches and 10 pre-match training sessions in 16 days.
Maktoum bin Rashid Stadium, Dubai – Full pitch rebuild by SIS Pitches in 2015 and has been maintained ever since. It will take on five matches and 10 pre-match training sessions in 15 days.
Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain – SIS Pitches installed a new irrigation system at the stadium and carried out an extensive maintenance programme to ensure the pitch was ready in time for the beginning of the tournament. It will play host to six matches and 10 pre-match training sessions in 15 days.
In addition, the pitch experts are also maintaining 15 training pitches for the 24-team tournament.
All grass for the pitch rebuilds came from the SIS Pitches turf farm in the UAE, designed and purpose-built for the returf of the Zayed Sports City Stadium Stadium, which will in its legacy mode be turned into two training pitches.
The total area of grass being maintained by SIS Pitches at the training grounds spans 134,550 square metres.
A team of 89 staff are working across all sites for the tournament including groundsmen, drivers, mechanics, electricians, irrigation plumbers and supervisors.
The company has offices around the world, including the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.
We are passionate about sport across all aspects of our business and thrilled at the phenomenal period of growth we have experienced, especially in the last six months.
We are very proud to have provided our services at venues being used at the World Cup, Club World Cup and now the Asian Cup, three of the most prestigious football competitions in the world, and believe this is an endorsement of the high-quality customer service we provide. For the Asian Cup, we are supplying high-quality pitches at seven of the eight venues being used in the tournament and also across 15 training pitches; that’s more than 180,000 square metres of grass.
Our team of experts have worked exceptionally hard to ensure all pitches were ready for the beginning of the tournament, and I’m confident all surfaces will be in excellent condition when it concludes next month. This has been a wonderful period of growth for SIS Pitches and we are looking forward to continuing our success into 2019 and beyond.
David Ball, Managing Director for the UAE
The pitch at Rashid Stadium was of fantastic quality and looked amazing.
It’s the kind of surface players and referees love to work on so I must congratulate SIS Pitches on doing such a professional job.
Colonel Ali Hamad, head of referees for the AFC
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