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Entries for the ESTO Football Awards 2014 now open!

Entries are now open for the ESTO Football Awards 2014!

The Awards are a chance to showcase excellence and celebrate the success of ESTO members in driving forwards the synthetic turf industry and in doing so creating a series of landmark, best in class, professionally focused and community enhancing projects.

Taking place on Thursday 5th June 2014 in Istanbul, and during the ESTO Congress, the ESTO Football Awards can only be entered by members and will be voted for by key individuals from the leading European football associations and leagues.

Click here to download the ESTO Football Awards brochure.

Click here to download the entry form.

Find out more at www.estc.info/footballawards

 

Shockpads Working Group produces performance guide

The European Synthetic Turf Organisation (ESTO) formed Shockpad Working Group has recently produced a detailed performance guide for shockpads. The guide has been produced in order to allow for comparison between differing shockpads, to specify minimum durability criteria for shockpads when used with synthetic turf, therefore ensuring performance; and also to prepare a draft document that can be submitted to the European Standards Committee (CEN) Technical Committee as a European Standard for Shockpads to complement EN 15330.

ESTO provided administrative support in the development of this document; however the substantive content thereof is the responsibility of the companies mentioned below.

The following companies from the European Synthetic Turf Organisation’s Shockpad Working Group actively participated in the development of this document:

  • Bonar Yarns and Fabrics Ltd
  • Genan Business & Development A/S
  • Greiner Multifoam GmbH
  • Lano Sports
  • Labosport International
  • Polytan Sportstättenbau GmbH
  • ProGame – Trocellen GmbH
  • Recticel – Re-bounce
  • Schmitz Foam Products B.V – ProPlay Sport
  • Sekisui Alveo AG

Click here to download the guide.

ESTO Congress 2013 a huge success

The famous Albert Dock in Liverpool, England played host to the 4th annual ESTO Congress on September 26th and 27th, bringing together ESTO members as well as national and international sports federations to discuss and debate the future of synthetic turf and the crucial role ESTO will play in its development.

A well-attended delegation took an active part in two busy days of cutting edge content from a variety of industry respected speakers. Mark Pover from the English FA, Antonio Armeni from LND in Italy and Karolina Kristenson, who is an MD PhD graduate working with Jan Ekstrand’s Football Research Group at Linköping University were the ‘big hitting’ line-up of speakers in the first session on day one.

Nigel Fletcher, ESTO’s Executive Chairman took to the stage for the second half of the day, giving a major insight into next year outlining in clear terms the many new benefits for members, both direct and indirect benefits. The focus will be giving members even more benefits whilst positioning ESTO as an Independent and neutral source for objective information, data and for more persons to understand the benefits of synthetic turf.

Other speakers in the afternoon session included Piet Tytgat from Recticel, Daniel Shockmann from Genan, Mats Johnsson from Ashurst and Alastair Cox from Labosport. Nigel Fletcher from ESTO brought day one to a close with some final conclusions before the delegates moved on to the PanAm bar on the famous docks to eat, drink and network during the evening whilst taking in the sounds of the FabBeatles – a nod to Liverpool’s most famous exports!
 
ESTO itself took centre stage at the start of day two of the Congress with Nigel Fletcher giving everyone a review of the ESTO membership benefits and its next steps, showcasing the new website, the Market Report – Vision 2020 with Robin Russell, former management team member at the English FA and technical consultant to UEFA. The ESTO Market report is a landmark publication. In this opening to the second day members were also shown again the new digital ESTO member directory plus a host of other new benefits and services that the ESTO membership can now enjoy.

The Congress then moved on to presentations from the two biggest international federations in attendance, and strong advocates of synthetic turf; FIFA and the IRB. Steve Griffiths from the IRB then handed back to Nigel Fletcher to take those in attendance through a key development in the ESTO landscaping development before rounding the Congress up with a brief summary and look forward to the rest of 2013 and beyond.

The next ESTO congress will take place in Istanbul in 2014 and we once again very much look forward to welcoming all of our members and colleagues to what we hope will be another successful event.