Another new pitch for Wembley

Wembley's controversial pitch is to replaced for the 10th time since the new stadium was opened three years ago due to the combined effects of a harsh winter and freak weather conditions.

The decision to change the surface once more was taken on Wednesday night after the England match against Egypt, and the Football Association insist it is not a knee-jerk reaction to negative comments from Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and his Aston Villa counterpart Martin O'Neill after the Carling Cup final last Sunday.

Ferguson claimed the pitch played a part in ending Michael Owen's season after he suffered a hamstring injury in the final, as well as leaving Wayne Rooney vulnerable to injury following two tiring games in four days on the energy-sapping surface.

The Wembley ground staff battled hard against the elements to get the pitch in good condition ahead of the final and Wednesday's England international, with 80millimetres of rain in the week leading up to the Carling Cup final and a further 40mm the night before the game .

A Wembley spokesman said: "The ground staff did very well to stage the Carling Cup despite conditions in the build-up and employed the use of a canopy to shield the pitch from the rain on Saturday night and Sunday before kick-off.

"They worked round the clock and could not have done more. Conditions were better ahead of the England match but the pitch was still not good enough for our liking.

"A decision was made on Wednesday night to replace the pitch and this will take place this weekend ahead of Johnstone's Paint Trophy (JPT) on March 28.

"Ultimately, this pitch has not fared well through what has been an extremely harsh winter and it needs to be replaced.

"This will be the 10th pitch since opening but the stadium caters for football and non-football events so replacing the pitch more than once during the course of a year is a reality of a multi-purpose venue."

The use of Wembley as a multi-purpose arena rules out a seeded pitch, which football clubs use.

The spokesman added: "We used a different type of pitch, sand-based soil, following the complaints after last year's FA Cup semi-finals and this fared much better in 2009 as per the various comments from managers around the FA Cup final and England matches.

"But, over the course of this winter and the freak weather last week, it now needs to be replaced. It will take a few days to take up the old turf and prepare the surface, a few more days to put the new turf down and up to a week to bed in. This can be done ahead of the JPT."

Ferguson believed the state of the Wembley pitch could have played a part in Michael Owen's latest hamstring injury.

The Scot said: "He's not had a lot of minutes recently and that soft pitch didn't help him. It's a bad blow for us."

O'Neill said: "It is very poor for a national stadium. There is really no excuse for it.

"The stadium costs £800million to sort out and the one thing you'd think they'd get right would be the playing surface.

"I don't know what the reason for it was but, considering it was a showpiece final, it was in very poor condition.

"It is poor in every aspect, slippery on top, divots being taken out, you lose your footing. It looks like they had played 35 games on it the previous week.

"They've had plenty of time to get it right. It has been up and running for a couple of seasons.

"It was like they had a rock concert on it the night before. The rock concert boys would have complained about it!"

Villa midfielder James Milner said: "It was very difficult to play on. It was slippy, cutting up, and hopefully it can improve because it wasn't good.

"You work as hard as you can to get into a Wembley cup final and it is probably one of the worst pitches you have played on all season.

"It was worse than the couple of lower-league teams' pitches we have played on, to be honest.

"Growing up and watching games at the old Wembley, everyone says it was like a carpet. In a cup final, you want to be playing in a great stadium, which it is, on a great pitch.

"I've played there before so I knew what to expect.

"But the other thing is, it is the home of England and, for us as a team, you want the best surface possible and, at the moment, it is not quite there."

Defender Carlos Cuellar added: "The pitch was really bad. People were falling over all of the time.

"For a big final, it was disappointing to play on a pitch like that. If you come to Wembley, you expect a good pitch - but it had no influence on the result."