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Everything But The Pitch

Crispin Thomas

Monday, May 17th, 2010

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 there’s a great saying:

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 ‘man reaches for the stars
and ignores the flowers at his feet….’

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 was it Byron….or was it the F.A?
but it’s as apt today as it was back when
and should be the legacy-motto
for the fiasco that is the Wembley pitch

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 a surveyor told me once –
that the Monaco pitch
was built on top of an underground car park
with never a problem

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 so what is it with us?
I recall seeing Dylan and The Stones from the pitch
standing on boards and thick hessian carpets
Live Aid too
and yes they’d have taken some hammering
but nothing cut up back then like it does today

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 when Final time came around
pundits and managers moaned too –
the “springy” lush surface
and how it “sapped and drained your energy”
but here I am and here we are in 2010
barely weeks since the Villa semi
(when they’d just laid a new pitch)
and lo and behold – it’s déja vu …. another pitch
the “….eenth” one since its inception
(fill in a number-one to twenty)

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 it’s amazing – if you ignore
the exhorbitant prices of tickets and everything
the design and construction – it’s beautiful
the structure and infrastructure – it’s all there
the set up too – incredible
speedy trains – direct to Wembley Stadium Station
security-policing-stewarding …all neatly in place
painstakingly assembled
and yielding a smooth well-oiled organisation
outside and inside the ground
no queueing to drink or eat – well hardly any
even veggie pies-ok not cheap
but great view everywhere
annoying build up music..but a great atmosphere
a pinnace on the skyline
and many a Kodak moment for those inclined
but –
just like the soul of the game..
just like America
just like the parts of South Africa
they’ll hide from us on TV in the World Cup
it all looks ok on the outside
but look closer
at the single most important factor..
the surface the game is played on
It’s Badminton or Gatcome on acid
and dangerous too
how the heart yearns – with all this in place
for the one fundamental thing we want
a decent platform for the People’s Game
why why why
can’t they get it right?
Wembley Stadium…..
the ground with everything
everything but the pitch
.

© CT10

Notes

Until April 2010 I had never been to the new Wembley.
Two pitches in a month . Didn’t they ever consider the foundation and drainage first?

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/everything-but-the-pitch/