Problems with the construction of the Krestovsky football stadium in St. Petersburg have long become part of folklore, however, even after the arena was commissioned, there are still many reasons for jokes. The main one is the disgusting state of the field, which forced them to move the last home match of the championship to their old Petrovsky stadium. about the continuation of the scandal surrounding the infamous structure.

Scorched earth

The news about the postponement of the meeting of the 29th round of the Russian Championship with Krasnodar appeared in the St. Petersburg edition, but there is practically no doubt that the information will be officially confirmed soon. Everyone who watched the match between Zenit and Terek (0:1) live or on TV on May 7 had no doubts: playing on such a lawn is at least uncomfortable, and at most dangerous for the health of football players. When passing players, the ball on a noticeably “bald” field bounced unnaturally, and pieces of turf soared up after tackles or falls of the participants in the meeting.

“As a coach, I was interested in the field in St. Petersburg. Of course it's bad. As I said, the field was combat. When Ablaye Mbenge scored, his knee-deep leg got into the ground, ”Terek’s head coach told the portal after the meeting.

The owners of the field did not remain indifferent to the far from emerald lawn of Krestovsky. After the meeting, the head coach of Zenit said that he had asked the management to transfer the game with Krasnodar to Petrovsky, but then he was refused. The assistant to the Romanian specialist Oleksandr Spiridon, who worked with Lucescu for 13 years at Shakhtar, also spoke rather harshly.

“There is no such field in Ukraine. Even outsiders of the championship have not had such a field even once in 13 years. Even in the spring, when the grass begins to grow, no one has such a lawn on which football players suffer. And they suffered today,” said the coach.

Not a single field

According to eyewitnesses and information from various media, the problems at the new arena are not limited to the poor condition of the lawn. In Zenit's debut official meeting for Krestovsky, it was decided to leave the roof of the stadium closed due to unexpected snowfall, after which it became clear that it was leaking in places. Water was dripping along the side of the fan turn, and in the rooms under the stands, they tried to cope with the leak in the old proven way - with the help of plastic buckets.

According to Sport Day after Day, before the game with Terek, the blue-white-blues had problems arriving at Krestovsky Island, the team got stuck in a traffic jam. In addition, there were shortages of hot water in the locker room of the hosts. During the meeting with the people from Grozny, the audience also complained about the comfort. This time the roof of the arena was open, which caused an icy St. Petersburg wind to blow through the stadium.

The CEO of Zenit in a recent interview, not too optimistic, noted that the stadium would be brought to perfection only by the 2019/20 season.

Well, almost ready to host the Confederations Cup. If it doesn't rain these days, then everything will be great.

Chance for maneuver

However, the International Football Federation (FIFA) has no time to wait at all. Already on June 17, Krestovsky, which will be called St. Petersburg during the Confederations Cup, should host the opening match of the tournament between the national teams of Russia and New Zealand.

FIFA had a mandatory requirement to hold three test matches in the arena before the competition. If the meeting with Krasnodar is nevertheless postponed, there will be two such games left. According to Fontanka, the federation will be asked to consider the February festival "Radio Zenith" as the third test event. It is not known how FIFA will respond to this.

Much more than the demand for test matches football officials should be interested in the quality of the lawn, bringing the world's leading teams to such a field is a real disgrace. According to Sport-Express, citing an unnamed source, an unscheduled meeting will be held at the stadium on May 11. FIFA experts arrive in St. Petersburg, who, together with representatives of the organizing committee "Russia-2018", will decide what to do with the stadium field.

“There are two options: either the experts will decide that the lawn can be “cured” and brought back to normal by the Confederations Cup starting on June 17, or the field will have to be resurfaced by an emergency method. The experts will have to evaluate not only the lawn itself, but also the so-called filling, the pie for the field,” the source said.

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Last summer, one of the most famous fans of Zenit - an actor and singer - in a conversation with a Lenta.ru correspondent, in his hearts, proposed to demolish the unfinished Krestovsky at that time and install an 80-meter statue of work in its place. It is hard to understand how seriously this was said, but the fans of the blue-white-blue, like the rest of the fans of Russian football, hope that it will not come to this. The presence in St. Petersburg of a comfortable, modern and spacious arena plays into the hands of all Russians who are not indifferent to football.

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How soon will Zenit move to a new stadium? What's with the lawn? Why is everyone talking about problems again? Topics around the new St. Petersburg arena still do not go away. We decided to discuss them with the representative of the club - the deputy general director of Zenit for infrastructure management Vladimir Litvinov.

How would you comment on the information about the unsatisfactory state of the lawn at the new stadium, which appeared in a number of media?
- Natural turf built at the stadium by a subcontractor ( "Bamard". - Approx. "Championship"), which was hired by the general contractor of the construction, did not overwinter, which was quite expected. Moreover, the club has repeatedly warned representatives of the city - the customer of construction. At the same time, until now, the engineering systems that should provide and maintain the life support of natural lawn coverage have not been commissioned and do not work in the design mode. In fact, now the turf at the stadium is being re-grown, and statements that it needs to be changed and reseeded are meaningless, because it was already re-sown in early March, and, along with other agrotechnical measures, overseeding was carried out repeatedly. Claims that artificial insolation lamps have been misused are also baseless. A good example of this is the Petrovsky stadium, where this system is used and often used around the clock to achieve a good result.

How is the work with representatives of the city administration, which is responsible for the stadium on Krestovsky Island, structured in general?
- According to the agreement with the city, the field and the entire complex of engineering systems in the design and working condition were to be transferred to the operation of Zenit 60 days before the first match, that is, on February 24th. However, today the stadium field, as a set of systems, including the pie itself, structures and mechanisms, engineering systems, is not a finished object, that is, it has not yet been commissioned. The contracting company did not complete the commissioning and elimination of comments. Some systems, in particular watering and heating, do not work in the design mode. Thus, the field at the new stadium is essentially an object of unfinished construction.

The natural turf built at the stadium by a subcontractor hired by the construction general contractor did not overwinter, which was to be expected

Zenit has repeatedly commented on the construction of the field: in the summer and autumn of last year, in winter, on February 24, when the pie was rolled inside the stadium, and already in March, a month after the greenkeepers of FC Zenit started agrotechnical measures. It is important to note here that the club, for its part, fully fulfilled its obligations to purchase equipment, consumables, recruit personnel and other activities that were agreed with the city. In turn, the city and its contractors still cannot complete work on launching the field systems in the design mode. Thus, the club actually does not have the physical ability to accept and operate the lawn. But, despite this, Zenit has an understanding that both our team and the visiting teams should not experience sports discomfort associated with the quality of the field during test matches. For our part, we are taking all necessary measures.

- How does the club assess the state of the lawn in the arena now?
- At the moment, the process of growing natural lawn cover is fully controlled. Not everything goes smoothly, because we grow the lawn in unique conditions - in a metal box, inside a closed room, where the ventilation system still does not work in the design mode and there is no way to open the roof. There are problems with air circulation inside the bowl of the stadium, with humidity, and other problems, due to which grass growth is not as intense as we would like, nevertheless, the grass grows, and this is a great merit of Zenit agronomists, who make tremendous efforts.

Zenit has repeatedly commented on the construction of the field: in the summer and autumn of last year, in winter, on February 24, when the pie was rolled inside the stadium, and already in March, a month after the greenkeepers of FC Zenit started agrotechnical measures

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- Are the city authorities trying to solve the problem of arena readiness?
- Unfortunately, we do not see the desire of responsible persons to actively contribute to the completion of construction and the elimination of various shortcomings and shortcomings. From time to time, there are attempts to transfer unfinished premises, systems and structures to the club for operation, while the situation with the readiness of the field systems, in our opinion, has been brought to a critical level.

Unfortunately, we do not see the desire of responsible persons to actively contribute to the completion of construction and the elimination of various shortcomings and shortcomings.

- If we talk about test matches, is Zenit still ready to hold them for the city at the new stadium?
- The situation is as follows. As part of its commitment to FIFA, the city must organize test events in the arena ahead of the Confederations Cup. The club received an official appeal from the city authorities with a request to hold matches of the Russian championship at the new stadium. On November 11, 2016, the club agreed to this, provided that the stadium and the surrounding area with all the infrastructure for the test matches will be fully completed, put into operation and the stadium itself is certified by the RFU. Unfortunately, most of the points from the conditions that Zenit then set have either not been met or have been partially met to date. Despite this, we understand the importance of holding test matches in terms of preparing for the Confederations Cup and do not refuse from our obligations. Now we are doing everything to make the stadium and the field ready for test matches. After all, sports results largely depend on the state of the lawn.

Roman Moon - about the new problem of the St. Petersburg arena.

What's happening?

There are big problems with the turf at the St. Petersburg stadium. “Even the outsiders had such a bad field in Ukraine,” Mircea Lucescu said after the Zenit-Terek match, which made Spartak the champion. Oleg Shatov after the same game asked journalists to write that the pitch was bad. Rashid Rakhimov said that Mbenge, scoring the winning goal, fell into the lawn up to his knees. Anyone who has watched Zenit's last two home games will confirm that the lawn is getting worse, not better.

According to Fontanka, there are now two working options. The first option is a complete replacement of the turf with a ready-made natural turf made by the Dutch company Queens Grass International (the turf was made by Old Trafford, San Siro and Juventus Stadium). This is a temporary solution, the goal is for the turf to withstand four matches of the Confederations Cup (three games of the group stage + final) and 8 official training sessions of the national teams. The second option is to flash the current lawn using a special technology with synthetic threads. This may strengthen the root system and ensure grass growth, but it is possible that there will be no effect from this.

Before the Confederations Cup - 1 month and 7 days.

Photo: fc-zenit.ru / Vyacheslav Evdokimov; RIA Novosti / Mikhail Kireev (2,3,5), Grigory Sysoev

The laying of a new lawn at the Zenit Arena has been completed. Pictures of the updated field have spread throughout the Internet.

Today, work on laying a new lawn at the Zenit Arena has been completed. We bring to your attention the most popular photos from the Internet.

New turf at Zenit Arena

New turf at the Zenith Arena (Photo 2)
New turf at Zenit Arena (Photo 3)

The turf for the Zenith Arena was provided by Queens Grass International, and the football club Zenit and Bamart, which was responsible for the quality of the previous surface, are responsible for laying and preparing the field for the future Confederations Cup 2017.

According to the statements of the Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg Vladimir Kirillov, after laying the lawn, its firmware will begin and on June 2-3, the Zenith Arena stadium will be handed over to the organizing committee of the 2018 World Cup for further operation.

Also, according to the vice-governor, the new lawn was grown for 4 years in Gatchina, in the village of Pizhma (Leningrad region). The estimated cost of the new lawn is 21 million rubles.

St. Petersburg Arena (Zenith Arena)- one of the most expensive stadiums in the world. The cost of construction is 41.7 billion rubles. The stadium was leased to the Zenit football club for 100 years at a symbolic cost of 1 ruble per year. The stadium was designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa. Capacity 67,800 people. This stadium will host matches of the Confederations Cup 2017, World Cup 2018, European Championship 2020. The stadium has the highest rating from UEFA (4 stars).

Football club "Zenith" decided not to play at the new stadium "St. Petersburg Arena". As it became known to the media, the last home match of the current RFPL championship will be transferred to the Petrovsky stadium. The main reason is the disgusting quality of the lawn at the Zenit Arena, according to Fontanka.ru.

The state of the lawn after an unsuccessful wintering at the stadium was sharply criticized by the head coach of Zenit Mircea Lucescu immediately after the team's games with Ural (April 22) and Terek (May 7). “Even the outsiders of the Ukrainian Championship don't have such pitches,” he told reporters.

The fact that not everything was in order with the field was obvious to everyone who was nearby during the matches, Fontanka writes: at the match with Ural, the lawn smelled of rot, and large bald spots were visible on the field; at the match with Terek, the unpleasant smell seemed to have disappeared, but by the shape of the Grozny team, which turned from white to deep green, the journalists began to suspect that the field or its individual pieces had been touched up. The players literally weeded the lawn with their boots, tearing out whole shreds from it, which, only by sheer chance, never changed the trajectory of the ball and thus did not affect the outcome of the match.

The head coach of Zenit appealed to the leadership of the football club to transfer the remaining matches to Petrovsky on May 5. “But I was told that this is unrealistic, because we have to play two more games at the new stadium,” said Mircea Lucescu. This requirement was allegedly put forward by FIFA to test the stadium before the Confederations Cup - 2017 in Russia. Then, nevertheless, the necessary decision was made.

Meanwhile, the vice-governor of St. Petersburg, Igor Albin, who oversaw the completion of the arena, is sure that everything is in order with the field. “All questions are for the Zenit football club,” he told a Fontanka correspondent when asked to comment on the transfer of the match to Petrovsky. - Since August last year, Zenit has been involved in the lawn.

Not the best condition of the lawn was noticed by journalists during one of the first acquaintances with it - on February 27, during the fifth visit of FIFA and the Russia-2018 Organizing Committee to the arena. Then Colin Smith, director of the FIFA competitions and events department, was the first to respond to criticism: “If you lay outside the stadium for six months, you would look like that too. All this time the field was in a winter state. Now it is waking up. Representatives of the city and specialists of the Zenit football club, who have excellent experience in preparing fields in these particular climatic conditions, are already working on this.”

Igor Albin, vice-governor of St. Petersburg, echoed him: “Our climatic conditions are characterized by the winter period, when flora and fauna fall asleep. The lawn was asleep too. Now he is waking up." However, the miraculous awakening does not seem to have happened.