Poland-England off after stadium farce
Reuters - Tuesday 16 October 2012, 23:30
Farce
followed heavy rain in descending on Warsaw on Tuesday as Poland's
World Cup Group H qualifier against England was postponed due to a
waterlogged pitch after officials failed to close the national stadium's
roof.
The game was
rearranged for 15:00GMT on Wednesday, but the Polish FA was facing an
immediate backlash after the decision to leave the retractable roof open
despite the city suffering from a sustained storm.
"We were made into a laughing stock," said former Poland international Tomasz Iwan.
Thousands
of fans were angered after being kept at the stadium while authorities
waited in vain to see if the Group H fixture could go ahead later on
Tuesday evening.
But shortly
after 19:45, with the pitch in places resembling a paddling pool and
referee Gianluca Rocchi having conducted a second and final pitch
inspection, the game was called off and the players returned to their
hotels.
A Polish FA
spokeswoman said neither of the side' representatives nor the FIFA
delegate wanted to make the decision to close the roof.
"None
of the sides wanted such a solution," said Agnieszka Olejkowska. "We
knew there would be heavy rain but we could not 100 percent predict the
downpour."
A spokesperson for
the National Sports Centre, which operates the 58,000-seater stadium
built to host the European Championship in June, said: "There is a
functioning drainage system but with this amount of rain falling
continuously, no system could get rid of this amount of water."
The
roof was eventually closed at 22:20 GMT on Tuesday, with the groundstaff
tasked with making sure the pitch is playable by Wednesday.
England manager Roy Hodgson said he had no idea why the roof was not closed earlier on Tuesday.
"That's something I can't answer," he said.
"You
will have to speak to the Polish authorities. I am rather hoping they
will get it closed now and start work on the pitch as the water is lying
on the surface and it will need a lot of attention if we are going to
play."
He added: "It was
pretty obvious to me early on that this game was not going to be played.
But I understand the referee wanted to examine every possibility.
"It's
a disaster for the Polish FA, who had a big crowd. We've got a problem
now of having to re-prepare. Our players have to do things all over
again. No one's a winner in this situation."
His Polish counterpart, Waldemar Fornalik, wanted to move the match to mid-November but was resigned to playing on Wednesday.
"You
can play on any pitch, but the question is how such play would look,"
he told reporters. "I am surprised that after such a rainfall the pitch
was in such a state."
English
FA official Adrian Bevington said: "There's two things to this: clearly
there's a huge problem there for the supporters who have travelled all
this way, and the Polish fans who have travelled around their country... but likewise, you have also got to take into account the safety of
the players, and that pitch tonight was no way playable from a safety
point of view."
When the
sides meet on Wednesday, England will be aiming to maintain their long
unbeaten streak against Poland and their place at the top of qualifying
Group H.
Hodgson said he
would pick the same team for Wednesday, and hoped his players would be
as well prepared as they had been on Tuesday.
The
manager, though, was not likely to be fazed by the inconvenience. Asked
if he had experienced a late postponement before, the 65-year-old said:
"Funnily enough, yes. In 1987, when my Malmo team were all set to play
Ajax, a snow storm came in and covered the pitch in snow and caused the
game to be postponed for a couple of days."