If Sweden wins the European Football Championship in 2025, the artificial turf at Tele2 Stadium in Stockholm will not do the trick.
Ten days before the premiere, they plan to cover the roof with sand – and put up natural grass.
And Messrs. Hammarby and Djurgården must be ready to act.
UEFA requires that tournament matches be played on natural grass. However, Stockholm’s Tele2 Arena is one of three Swedish facilities in the European 2025 joint Nordic application being submitted today.
How does this work?
The project manager, Goran Havic, says the association has thoroughly researched the possibility of covering artificial turf and putting natural turf on top. It is quite possible – but not permanently, but for a few weeks.
– It’s happened before in other places. 2013 in Norrköping, 2008 in two arenas in Switzerland, at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow … Havík says that Tele2 is not built on natural grass for long periods, but it is technically feasible for a short period in the summer.
In January 2023, it will be decided whether the Nordic countries will take over the European Championship ahead of competitors France, Poland and Switzerland.
Two away games in a row
In this case, the plan is to make Tele2 Arena available ten days before the June 2025 premiere. The membrane will cover the artificial turf, which will remain, and a layer of sand will be spread over it. In the upper part, natural grass is rolled.
– It takes about 2 days to install for a new garden, the experience is that you can already play on it after a few days. But for quality, we want to wait ten days, says Hafik.
How long does it take the yard to get the natural grass in and out?
– A total of three to four weeks.
What will happen to Hammarby and Djurgarden in the men’s league – should they leave?
We have spoken with the competition department and the clubs concerned about what the Allsvenskan preliminary program should look like. It will be a longer break and the current clubs can play two games away in a row so as not to collide.
So it’s not appropriate to move the home matches elsewhere?
– number.
The other Swedish arenas in the app are Gamla Ullevi in Gothenburg (for the group stage) and Friends Arena in Solna (for the final).
