Pitch battle claims head groundsman

The row over the state of Wembley’s pitch has claimed a high profile victim in the shape of the national stadium’s ground manager Steve Welch who was sacked on Saturday.

The Sunday Times claimed Welch has been made to pay with his job for the pitch which Arsene Wenger labelled “a disaster” after Arsenal’s FA Cup semi-final defeat to Chelsea last weekend.

Manchester United boss sir Alex Ferguson was equally dismissive 24 hours later when he said his team selection in the penalty shoot-out defeat to Everton had been influenced by fears the likes of Wayne Rooney could be injured on the “spongy and dead” turf.

As Welch was being shown the door the pitch was being dug up at a cost of 80,000 pounds for the sixth time since the stadium opened in time for the FA Vase on May 9, the paper reported.

Jonathan Gregory, head of Wembley’s communications team, when asked to comment on Welch’s dismissal, said: “Officially we will be making no comment until next week.”