The incident could have been serious. On Sunday, the members of the football club of Saint-Jouvent (Departmental 3 of Haute-Vienne) welcomed their rivals from Bersac-sur-Rivallier in a match which could definitively ensure the rise of the local club to the next level. But then, on Saturday morning, the staff of this small club with nearly 70 members discovered that their lawn looked more like a field than an approved football pitch according to Romuald Dufraisse, club secretary. A story told by the People of the Center.
According to this club representative contacted by Le Parisien, the municipal services were to take care of the preparation of the ground on Thursday, but due to the rain, this task was not carried out the same day or the next day. Amazed, football fans turned into “budding footballers” for the purposes of the cause. No question of missing this decisive match for a blade of grass a little too high.
“It was so high, reports Romuald Fraisse, both on the ground and also on the embankment that runs along it. The referee could have not played the match on the grounds that the ball could not roll perfectly, ”confided the executive of the club on Tuesday. “There is no regulation size but at some point, you have to mow it otherwise it slows down the game,” adds the club’s FFF contact. For exemple, at the professional levelthe height to maintain of the lawn is between 25 to 40 mm.
“We were four”
“We didn’t want to take the risk that the other team would put up a reserve. We were there, in front of the field, we said to ourselves we will do it for the club”. The members of the club therefore emptied their garages to find the appropriate equipment for an emergency “green hand” operation. “There were four of us, two lawn tractors and two brushcutters. To do everything, it took at least two and a half hours before obtaining a correct result”, remembers Romuald Fraisse.
Once the field had returned to a more academic form on Sunday morning, the day of the match, the staff had to blow the playing surface again and redraw the lines themselves. The kick-off scheduled for 3 p.m. could well have been whistled by the man in black and the meeting could be disputed without incident. What could have been a story of cursed grass finally ended well. With a 0-0 draw, the local club ensured its rise and satisfied its supporters.
“But it doesn’t make sense for us to do that. It’s up to the city to maintain, it’s not up to us. In the end, I think they are happy that we are going up even if they do not say so, ”concludes, with a smile, Romuald Fraisse, who will long remember his rise in Departmental 2. Contacted, the town hall of Saint -Jouvent did not answer us at the time of writing these lines.
