When the United States hosted the Copa America — a prestigious competition featuring the best national teams from North and South America — last summer, it was expected to be an appetizer before the main course, the 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted alongside Mexico and Canada.
But instead of inspiring excitement, the competition left behind concerns over the quality of pitches available stateside, with players decrying “disaster” fields and organizer CONMEBOL publicly defending those surfaces. Now, questions linger about whether the U.S. is ready for the World Cup, and FIFA is using this summer’s Club World Cup to find answers.
For the first time, the newly reformatted, 32-team Club World Cup will be hosted by 12 venues — most of them used by the NFL — across the U.S., bringing the likes of Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland and Harry Kane to North America for competitive matches. As fans anticipate being able to watch some of the world’s greatest teams, including Real Madrid, Manchester City and Bayern Munich, FIFA and U.S. stadiums will use the competition as a precursor to next year’s World Cup, that tournament’s largest and most logistically challenging edition yet.
Five venues — Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Hard Rock Stadium (Miami), Lumen Field (Seattle), Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia) and MetLife Stadium (East Rutherford, N.J.) — will host both the 2025 Club World Cup and the 2026 World Cup, but most of them pose challenges: They are NFL stadiums designed mainly for artificial turf, and some have roofs that make it difficult to install grass for a long period.
CONMEBOL’s solution at the Copa America for these types of venues was to use grass overlays, but that temporary solution was far from optimal. The overlays are put together in pieces, so they have seams that can be uneven and, as players pointed out, rip apart over time.
In light of the controversy over the fields last summer, FIFA is doing things differently. Never in World Cup history have games been played on artificial grass, but FIFA is putting resources into developing new strategies to bring grass to NFL stadiums, insistent that there be no repeat of Copa America’s mistakes.
“We are singularly focused on our own competitions of the Club World Cup and World Cup 2026 — tournaments with challenges that have never been done before,” FIFA’s senior pitch manager, Alan Ferguson, told ESPN. “There is no blueprint for us to follow, even with previous editions of the World Cup. It’s never been as big, triple-hosted or have the climactic challenges we have now.”
After Copa America’s ‘disaster’ pitches, a new direction for the Club World Cup
Throughout last summer, coaches and players openly complained about the conditions of the grass at the CONMEBOL tournament. The stadiums drawing the most ire were those that converted artificial turf to natural grass for the competition, importing and patching up entire fields just hours before kickoff.
Copa America stadiums included MetLife Stadium, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Bank of America Stadium, AT&T Stadium, SoFi Stadium and NRG Stadium — all of which are primarily used for NFL games and will host next summer’s World Cup, too. They all have artificial turf, and some have roofs that prevent adequate sun for grass. Argentina national team goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez labeled the field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium a “disaster” last year. The stadium will host eight World Cup games next summer, including a semifinal.
“Very bumpy,” Martinez said. “We faced a strong Canada side on a pitch that was a disaster. It jumped on you as you ran.”
U.S. men’s national team midfielder Weston McKennie also noticed problems in the pitch installed by CONMEBOL.
“I think what Martínez was saying was completely true,” McKennie said. “You’re playing on a football field with laid grass that’s all patchy, and it breaks up every step you take. It’s frustrating.”
In the case of venues with artificial turf such as Mercedes-Benz Stadium, panels of grass were laid on top of the pitch in cross-sections, which led to the complaints. But CONMEBOL insisted that the fields were safe.
“The grass in Atlanta posed absolutely no threat,” Frederico Nantes, CONMEBOL’s director of competitions, told ESPN last summer. “All the tests came out sufficient. I think the aesthetic of the field was what posed a problem for the players. They care a lot about aesthetics.”
Despite CONMEBOL’s promise to adhere to consistent standards, each grass overlay received different treatment once the Copa America began. CONMEBOL installed the pitch at Mercedes-Benz Stadium just three days before the tournament opener June 17, while the surface at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium was placed two weeks before the venue’s first game. For the final, CONMEBOL installed a new pitch at Hard Rock four days before kickoff. CONMEBOL said the lack of natural light at Mercedes-Benz Stadium dictated the timeline of the installation process.
FIFA will face heightened scrutiny at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in particular heading into the 2025 Club World Cup and 2026 World Cup given the volume of complaints around it during the Copa America, as well as the caliber of games taking place there this summer. For the Club World Cup, Lionel Messi‘s Inter Miami, Chelsea FC and Manchester City are among the teams set to play there.
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Ferguson said FIFA drafted an entirely new plan when considering the logistics of the 2025 Club World Cup because his team faced challenges previously unseen at any other FIFA tournament.
“Using NFL stadiums with artificial turf, it’s probably the one area that sets it apart from previous editions,” Ferguson said. “For a normal World Cup, we do standard pitch profiles and in soccer-specific stadiums, so it would be relatively straightforward. We start building those a year out to be ready for the tournament. Here, it’s completely different. That’s why we upscaled the research heading out of Qatar.”
FIFA requires natural grass for its premier tournaments, so there is no choice but to find a way to convert each stadium’s playing surface. Ferguson and his team take into consideration the layout of each stadium, personalizing the installation process of natural grass to each of the fields to maximize potential.
For Copa America, CONMEBOL opted to create several natural grass overlays with a density of 25 millimeters to go over the synthetic turf of each venue, and followed a schedule to replace the fields in the later rounds of the tournament just days before kickoff. The quick turnaround and sectioned overlays inspired most of the complaints from participants, though FIFA insists it will not take the same approach.
“We knew any temporary overlay before hadn’t worked 100 percent, and we were going to need it for a longer period of time,” Ferguson said.
A new way of bringing grass to the fields of a World Cup
If the Club World Cup, and later the 2026 World Cup, are going to eliminate the pitch problems of Copa America, FIFA will need to debut new strategies to mitigate the climate and field conditions in the U.S.
Rather than swap out fields as the tournament goes, FIFA is choosing to implement one pitch at each venue for the entire tournament, and at some stadiums the fields will be installed up to two months in advance. (FIFA would not elaborate on which venues were on the earlier installation schedule.)
With overlays ruled out for all the reasons that drew complaints during Copa America, FIFA has devised “shallow pitches” to replace the synthetic base entirely. Ferguson said they can be used for 60 days without needing to be replaced, featuring a hybrid weaving of real and artificial grass that will be cut into strips 4 feet wide and 45 feet long before being hydraulically pressed together. That will then sit on top of a drainage layer that allows moisture and air under the roots of the grass — the natural grass can get water as needed but it won’t get over-watered. The result is a field that feels like natural grass but is temporary.
FIFA began testing this strategy during Nations League matches in March, having the U.S. men’s national team play on that type of pitch when facing Panama and Canada at SoFi Stadium.
USMNT midfielder Timothy Weah labeled the pitch “different,” saying players must grow accustomed to the new ground before the World Cup arrives.
“It was interesting,” Weah said. “I think it’s something we need to get used to if we’re going to be playing on it in the World Cup, and we just have to continue getting games on it. But it was pretty decent.
“For me it was a heavier pitch. So heavier pitch means after games you get that stress on the body, but something that we were all just going to have to get used to and play on it more.”
Forward Patrick Agyemang “didn’t really have many complaints about it,” while forward Jack McGlynn “thought it was pretty good … pretty slick” and said he had “no complaints.” FIFA and Ferguson’s team were able to watch players and the ball interact with the shallow pitch in real time in order to adjust accordingly from what they learned.
“We’ve had various trials that allowed us to make solid decisions, to see how the venue and players react to these solutions,” Ferguson said. “It remains a special challenge, very unique, never been done before but there is collaboration. If we were to deliver tomorrow, I’d be confident in the delivery.”
The approach to the 2025 Club World Cup and 2026 World Cup will slightly vary as the two feature different logistical challenges, but Ferguson and his team will use the 32-club competition to adjust each aspect of the grass for the international stage.
With two revolutionary formats changing the scope of the Club World Cup and World Cup, FIFA will desperately try to avoid the legacy of pitch-related incidents through different methodologies regarding grass and a new approach to fields.
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