🌱 Footballers prefer it natural

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Brazilian football’s biggest stars launch artificial pitch debate

Neymar’s long-awaited return to Brazilian football and his boyhood club Santos is starting to bear fruit. With seven appearances, three goals (including one straight from a corner kick) and three assists, he’s already been more productive than he was in his 532 days playing for Saudi club Al-Hilal.

His Santos side is in with a chance of state championship gold, and Brazil manager Dorival Júnior confirmed Thursday that the 33-year-old will be returning to the national team for World Cup qualifiers against Colombia and Argentina later this month.

But his biggest impact on Brazilian football since his return may well end up coming off the field.

On the morning of February 18, Neymar and his former national team colleagues Lucas Moura and Thiago Silva published a coordinated protest post on social media that was quickly shared by most of the league’s prominent players. The target? Artificial football pitches.

Accompanied by the hashtag “No To Artificial Pitches,” the post included a short statement of protest, which complained that artificial surfaces “should not even be an option” in Brazilian football and that “professional football is not played on artificial turf.”

Artificial pitches in Brazil: where and why?

Artificial pitches have been permitted in Brazilian football since 2018, and the main models in use consist of purely synthetic turf — unlike the hybrid “stitched” technology used at Europe’s top stadiums, in which real grass is stitched together with synthetic fibers to increase stability and durability.

Three clubs in Brazil’s top flight currently use artificial pitches: reigning champions Botafogo, Palmeiras and Athletico Paranaense. Atlético Mineiro are in the process of installing their own at their brand-new stadium, Arena MRV.

Footballers’ opposition to playing on artificial surfaces is typically tied to a perceived increased risk of injury. However, with the scientific literature highly inconclusive on this front, Neymar & Co. omitted any mention of injuries or safety from their anti-artificial arguments, claiming instead that all-natural surfaces would improve the spectacle of Brazilian football.

But since his return to Santos, Neymar has already vetoed moving one of the club’s home games to Palmeiras’s artificial pitch at the Allianz Parque, with his staff worried about the risk of the 33-year-old getting hurt.

Regarding how artificial turf impacts the game itself, there is little disagreement. The ball moves a lot faster across the surface and bounces differently than on real grass. Almost all of the most prominent players involved in the social media protest have ample experience playing in Europe, where top-level hybrid pitches vary minimally.

The reason artificial pitches exist in the Brazilian league is predominantly financial. Brazil’s annual football calendar is relentless, and pitches require significant maintenance to remain usable, never mind of good quality.

Top-flight Brazilian sides competing across all the main competitions can be expected to play up to 40 matches at home per season.

Alessandro Oliveira, CEO of turf supply company Soccer Grass, said that artificial pitches are “undeniably cheaper” than natural ones, with maintenance costs an estimated 75% less. Athletico Paranaense spends a reported BRL 200,000 (around USD 35,000) a year maintaining the artificial turf at its Ligga Arena, while the lighting costs to maintain its old natural pitch were around BRL 1.2 million annually.

The Palmeiras Problem

For the São Paulo-based side Palmeiras, an artificial pitch became more of an obligation than an option. But the club could stand to lose the most from a potential future ban on alternative surfaces.

As well as being home to one of São Paulo’s most popular football clubs, Palmeiras’s Allianz Parque stadium is renowned as one of the best concert venues in all of Brazil — and thus is highly sought after to host gigs and events.

However, concerts and regular football matches left the Allianz Parque turf destroyed, forcing a switch to an artificial turf in 2020. Synthetic surfaces require much less recovery time between uses, meaning that the stadium could strike a workable balance between games and gigs.

A ban on these surfaces could cause revenue upheaval at Palmeiras at a moment when the club is at its most financially sound in its history. Not only would reintroducing a natural pitch be highly expensive, but it would also involve a drop in revenue from concerts and other functions and would force the team to play its home games elsewhere in weeks with gigs at Allianz Parque.

Gate receipts at alternative home grounds would be lower, and the club’s own membership programs would become less attractive to fans.

It comes as little surprise, then, that the club hit back with an official statement, calling the players’ critique “shallow” and “lacking scientific foundation.”

Meanwhile, Palmeiras’s forthright head coach Abel Ferreira was less divisive, announcing that he, too, prefers natural pitches, but that the players’ complaints were avoiding the real problem. “If UEFA were to come here and inspect the pitches in Brazil, only one would pass, maybe two,” he said, stressing that almost all of the natural playing surfaces are just as bad (and potentially dangerous) to host football matches.

“Congratulations to the players,” Ferreira added. “I adore it when they gather together around a cause. Talking about delayed salaries, Financial Fair Play, and professionalizing referees. Players like Neymar (...) Thiago Silva, they have to band together, they can’t stay quiet, and speak about everything.”

Other stories we’re following

📋 As mentioned at the head of this newsletter, Brazil coach Dorival Júnior announced his 23-man squad for the national team’s World Cup qualifiers against Colombia and Argentina later this month. Beyond Neymar, Flamengo right-back Wesley was rewarded for recent good form with a call-up. Vanderson (Monaco), Joelinton (Newcastle) and Matheus Cunha (Wolves) got their first nods with Dorival Júnior as head coach.

⚫⚪ According to a study by social media valuation company Horizm, São Paulo-based football club Corinthians generated the 10th most value of all sports teams on social media in 2024, being on a par with the Los Angeles Lakers.

• However, in on-the-pitch matters, Corinthians are at serious risk of being knocked out of the Copa Libertadores qualifiers, losing their first-leg match 3-0 away to Ecuadorian side Barcelona. The decisive second leg will be played in São Paulo on Wednesday night.

🙋‍♀️ On International Women’s Day, research company Ibope Repucom released a study showing that while Brazilians’ interest in sport increased 15% since 2020, this rise was 20% among the country’s women. The most popular sports among women in Brazil are, in order, volleyball, gymnastics, swimming, beach volleyball and football.

• However, the latter is set for a boom as Brazil will be hosting the Women’s World Cup in 2027.