Prince Khaled Bin Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, Chief of the Honorary Members Committee of Al-Ahli Club and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Al-Ahli Club Academy, signed Saturday a SR3.2 million contract to replace the grass at Prince Muhammed Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal ground with artificial turf. The signing was held at the Club's media center. According to Prince Saud Bin Mohammed Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal, CEO of the company to execute the project, Saudi Mondo, the playground is the first FIFA approved one of its kind in Saudi Arabia. “We expect all the Saudi clubs to demand this newly imported turf for their playfields,” Prince Saud said at the press conference. He added that the artificial turf would help clubs save a lot of their budgets since the product saves up 90 percent of the money that is normally allocated for maintenance. “The product also can't be easily affected by high temperatures – neither can it be influenced by humidity or rain. Clubs to have this product may think of replacing the turf after some eight years or even more,” he said. Prince Saud pointed out that players will not need to wear special boots for playing on the turf. He added that natural grass normally needs big quantities of water to keep growing and it requires frequent trimming. “This environment-friendly turf is similar to the natural grass. The players won't notice any difference, but the administration of the club will surely notice the savings, “ he added. The safety of players is always the main concern of club officials. According to Prince Saud, the new product can help reduce injuries. It will also decrease expenses on treatment compared to injuries on natural grass. He concluded that the execution of the project, which will start soon, would take two months. The signing ceremony was attended by Italian Ricardo Tettamanzi, General Manager for Export at Mondo Company, Ahmed Eid, Director of Al-Takamul Company, club president Abdul Aziz Al-Angari, Al-Ahli Brazilian coach Sergio Farias and a number of mediamen. Al-Ahli Executive Board of the Honorary Members announced the start of nomination for election to the presidency of the club for the next four years according to the statutory conditions in addition to the affiliation, competence and experience. For ten days, candidates can file their requests to the secretary general of the Executive Board starting from May 9.
