Why World Cup venues are installing grass fields to replace turf and the years-long quest to get it right

The world’s premier soccer players will grace the pitch at MetLife Stadium over the next few weeks at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.And the two best teams will battle there for eternal glory come July.The best way to showcase their talents is with a pristine field.

For some venues, such as MetLife, that requires an entire facelift — adding a grass surface on top of artificial turf to comply with regulations established by FIFA, soccer’s governing body.“Soccer is for everyone, whether you’re the kid that went to an Ivy League school or you’re the person that grew up with nothing,” CBS Sports Golazo analyst Michael Lahoud said.“And part of making a beautiful spectacle is you have to have the right field.

Because a good surface showcases good players.”FIFA has worked behind the scenes to ensure the playing surfaces are sustainable throughout the six-week tournament hosted across North America — which Lahoud believes is the bare minimum.Dr.

Trey Rogers, a Michigan State University professor who helped develop the World Cup pitches, joked that if nobody writes about the field conditions, he’s done his job.Over the past six years, FIFA has partnered with researchers at the University of Tennessee and Michigan State to develop grass fields for eight World Cup stadiums that regularly use turf, including MetLife.The new pitch was installed at MetLife on May 7, in time for the venue’s first of eight World Cup matches on June 13 between Brazil and Morocco.Before the grass sees its first action, The Post talked to those involved with the project and numerous soccer experts about the process behind creating MetLife’s pitch.“When it comes to delivering a field for the World Cup, to have those numbers, have all that thought process, it’s been very beneficial, and I couldn’t do my job without any of that information,” David Graham, FIFA’s senior pitch manager, told The Post about its work with MSU and UT.The process for creating that field started ...