After coming under serious criticism for its poor condition, the playing surface at Stade Pierre-Mauroy is finally going to be freshly placed in the middle of the on-going Euros.
The Union of the Football Associations in Europe which is the governing body of the Euros is believed to have conveyed the instructions regarding it to the French Football Federation.
A similar situation had arisen in the Euros in Switzerland 8 years back when St. Jakob Park had been resurfaced.
Talking about are convinced that new surface would be all in readiness come the game day.
However, before all that, there is a game still to be played on the same surface, which is the damaged one, tonight and the teams facing off are the Group E leaders Italy and one of the pre quarter final aspirants in the group, Republic of Ireland.
Completely pissed off after visiting the ground yesterday, Antonio Conte, the Azzurri coach declared the conditions, especially the game area, unsuitable and unfit to be used in Europe’s biggest competition and said he had not expected that.
In Conte’s words, “Yes, this is not for us only and the Irish would be countering similar conditions too, but, to be frank, you can’t be having such a surface for a tournament of such a high level.”
The humidity levels have been pretty high in and around Lille lately and while, the rain has made frequent appearances, the sun has not shined enough to take all the moisture away from the top of the surface which is why it has been dangerously slippery.