Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso says he spoke the Premier Soccer League CEO about the condition of pitches and reiterated; they did not enjoy playing Orlando Pirates on a sloppy Loftus Versfeld pitch last season.
In one of the season-defining games after the mid-season break, Pirates were thrashed 4-1 in a Lucas Ribeiro Costa show at the same venue that will host the top of the table clash on Saturday.
Coming into the first league meeting between the hosts Sundowns and the Buccaneers of the 2025/26 campaign, the topic of the mediocre standard of pitches has arisen once more, with Masandawana’s venues, Lucas Moripe Stadium and Loftus Versfeld coming under the scrutiny.
“It’s true that our pitch has not been in proper condition at Lucas Moripe in the last three matches, it’s absolutely true, you don’t need to tell me anything, I was the first one to speak about that in the press conferences before and after the match,” Cardoso said.
“The ones who come regularly to my press conferences, knows I am the first one to defend football and the quality of the conditions of the pitches, I spoke already with the CEO of the PSL, regarding the height of the grass of how it’s cut, there’s no rules on that.
“I spoke about being obliged to water the pitches, that’s how South African football will be developed and that’s the things, including [media] to worry about, more than speaking about the pitches we are not able to give.
“I saw photos, from the group we created in order to control the conditions in both pitches where we can play football and it’s now in good conditions. We know very well in terms of safety, Moripe is not the best venue [to play Pirates].”
Cardoso went on to state what happened last season was not something Masandawana wanted, with the off-season show of Giants, the Pirates production, showcasing how the opposition felt about a pitch, which majorly affected the standard of football for both sides, as players appeared to be on ice, with no grip after the muddy surfaced was overly watered prior to kickoff.
“So the match was changed for Loftus, I hope it doesn’t rain because it will be a horrible pitch to play football, okay the pitch will be changed, pretty soon, or at least with a big intervention, because what happened is that it’s a mixed pitch with synthetic amongst the natural grass, but with so much use, especially rugby matches, the grass is already under,” he explained.
“So, it’s exposed, we’re dealing with natural grass only – what is not compact and dense, and it now gets muddy under, so when it’s dry, we try to have it as dry as possible and only water it as it’s needed before the match so we can play and not get slippery.
“We didn’t like to play the match we played against Pirates last year; we didn’t like to play that match, don’t think we like those things, we don’t – we like fair play, we like to play football, the better the pitch, the best we perform, ask them where they want to play.
“They don’t want to play on a pitch where they can’t play football – probably some of the most beautiful football played in SA was in the World Cup, that was due to the quality of the pitches we had.”
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