This year, we have once again had the privilege of working alongside the Playing Surfaces Committee to determine the winners of the Grounds Team of the Season Award. The Playing Surfaces Committee consists of representatives from the Premier League, English Football League, Professional Footballers’ Association, Football Association, and the Grounds Management Association.
In the Premier League, pitches are scored after every match by the referee and match delegate who assess grass cover, traction and debris on the surface.
Our consultants, Stella Rixon, Michael Boyes and Neil Rodger, visited the five highest-scoring clubs between April 22nd and April 24th to conduct pitch assessments, ensuring fairness and consistency across all evaluations. As part of the visits our team assess the available resources and infrastructure, speak with the grounds teams to gain insight into the challenges they faced throughout the season and understand the maintenance programme they have in place.
The visit offers a snapshot of the pitch’s condition, which is considered alongside other factors such as usage levels, match footage, and climate conditions in the overall assessment.
The level of skill, knowledge, experience, and hours of hard graft devoted to delivering elite level playing surfaces in football is phenomenal. Grounds teams can sometimes go unrecognised yet are pivotal in enabling elite level sport to take place week after week.
The results are in…we’re delighted to share the winners and those who were highly commended:
Premier League
Winner
London Stadium
Highly Commended
Liverpool
Tottenham Hotspur
Newcastle United
Fulham
And for the EFL…
Winners
Championship – Watford
League One – Bolton Wanderers
League Two – Accrington Stanley
Highly Commended
Championship – Burnley & Middlesbrough
League One – Stockport County & Blackpool
League Two – MK Dons, Notts County & Chesterfield
Highlighting the importance of high quality pitches in professional football, it’s great to see the industry recognising the grounds teams. The standards are continually being raised, and we’d like to extend a huge congratulations to all the clubs named.
