Workers struggled Saturday to make the damaged Ellis Park pitch playable in time for Sunday's Confederations Cup opener between host South Africa and Iraq. Rugby, normally played at the Johannesburg stadium, has left the field scarred and uneven around midfield and players expecting international-standard pitches at the eight-nation tournament could be disappointed. Rugby has been played recently at the three other stadiums being used for the Confederations Cup in Rustenburg, Bloemfontein and Pretoria. With South Africa's two biggest sports competing for the same stadiums, it often leaves bumpy pitches for football once the rough and tumble of rugby's big men stops. The touring British and Irish Lions played on the Johannesburg pitch just 10 days ago. At Ellis Park on Saturday, five workers stared at a hole 10 centimeters (four inches) deep in the center of the goalmouth. When the world's greatest footballers meet in South Africa for the World Cup next year, they will expect the pitches to be as smooth as a billiard table to let balls run true. Unpredictable bounce can play havoc with skills, penalizing teams who play attractive passing games. Several such teams are competing for the Confederations Cup, with world champion Brazil, European champion Spain and Italy all appearing. “Everybody understands the seriousness of the pitch quality for a FIFA competition,” said FIFA's Director of Competition Jim Brown. Ellis Park, where both the opening Confederation Cup game and final will be played, needed a liberal dose of green dye to cover up rugby lines and returfing on patches where rugby players scrummaged to improve the pitch. “Rugby players are big guys and in a scrum they tend to do a little bit of damage to the turf,” local tournament organizer Derek Blanckensee said. “A tremendous amount of work is being done to repair that damage,” he said. In the goalmouth area, one worker was using a spade to roughly cut up a divot to see if it would fit. With rain and increased shade because of a roof expansion at Ellis Park, the original turf used to replace the rugby goalposts had caved in, resulting in more emergency work. Some flattened grass had turned yellow. Around midfield the grass was pockmarked with dead patches. Players will be able to tell immediately that the surface is rough and uneven. The last rugby match at Ellis Park was played on June 3 and the pitch had also suffered from hosting a political rally of the ANC party. Olympic age rules The IOC is adamant on keeping the current age format (23 years) for Olympic football and will cut back the size of the tournament if governing body FIFA changes the player eligibility rules. In an interview with the Associated Press, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said the quality of the competition would suffer if FIFA lowers the age limit for the men's tournament. Rogge said he has made clear to FIFA that the IOC will reduce the number of teams if FIFA goes through with the change.
