Webb in favour of artificial pitches

CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb voiced his support for artificial pitches following negative reaction to their planned use in the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada.
A group of leading players, including US star Abby Wambach, have filed a lawsuit against the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) and FIFA claiming sexual discrimination over the decision to use the synthetic surfaces.
But Webb maintained that modern technology meant that artificial pitches were in fact superior to natural ones, particularly in countries with difficult climates.
He said “when you look at places like the Caribbean and Canada and the weather, then artificial pitches are much better than a poor natural field.
“So for me the game on artificial pitches is seen to be the future and I believe that, if you have the best [players] in the world, then it is much better than on a bad grass field.”
The FIFA vice president was more concerned with the continuing fight against racism. Webb leads the FIFA anti-discrimination taskforce but was disappointed with the lack of action to a number of incidents, including offensive chanting, at this year’s World Cup in Brazil.
The next tournament is in Russia in four years’ time, and the country has already witnessed a fair share of alleged racism incidents in domestic football matches.
Webb hoped education would be the answer.
“It’s a huge challenge in Russia” he said. “We must start with education and it must come from the top down. There is nothing to fear but it must start with education.”