TURFGRASS RESEARCH
THE ROAD
TO FIFA
WORLD CUP 26
Behind the groundbreaking turfgrass research for a tournament of historic proportions
By John Kmitta
FIFA World Cup 26 is an unprecedented undertaking that will see the world’ s largest and most prestigious soccer tournament played out in 16 host stadiums across Canada, Mexico and the United States. A groundbreaking event such as this called for groundbreaking research and years of preparation.
To ensure the best-performing and safest soccer pitches— as well as surface uniformity across such vast geography, climates, and both indoor and outdoor venues— FIFA entrusted the multi-year turfgrass research effort to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville( UT) and Michigan State University( MSU).
According to John Sorochan, Ph. D., distinguished professor of Turfgrass Science and Management in UT’ s Herbert College of Agriculture, the road to World Cup 26 has been long and winding. Paving that road began more than a decade ago at the STMA Conference.
“ Everything’ s about relationships,” said Sorochan.“ As education chair for the STMA Conference, I did a general session about turfgrass from the other side of the pond, and brought over some people from the UK to speak about what they do in Europe in terms of sports field management for their soccer pitches.”
One of those speakers was Alan Ferguson who, at the time, was head groundsman for England’ s Football Association( FA), overseeing St. George’ s Park and Wembley Stadium. Sorochan— who has represented the NFL Players Association for Field Safety and Performance, and was tasked with inspecting and testing the fields for international NFL games – reconnected with Ferguson at Wembley Stadium in 2016.
Ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, FIFA tasked Ferguson with overseeing 6 of the 12 pitches in Russia. Then, in 2019, FIFA appointed Ferguson to the role of senior pitch management manager, overseeing everything related to the pitches for all tournaments. At that time, Ferguson and FIFA were already looking ahead to World Cup 26 in North America. They planned for the tournament to increase from 32 nations to 48, and set
18 SportsField Management | April 2025 sportsfieldmanagementonline. com