FIFA funds new turf for Gibraltar home games

The Gibraltar Football Association General Secretary Dennis Beiso has confirmed that FIFA will be funding the installation of a new turf at the Victoria Stadium in order to fulfil part of the conditions for Gibraltar to be allowed to play its next home international match on the Rock.

The GFA has already received the green light to play in Gibraltar.

“It’s a conditional green light provided certain works are carried out at Victoria stadium. One of them is clearly the need for a new pitch at the stadium,” explained General Secretary Dennis Beiso after a press conference on Tuesday.

“We are looking at timetabling that, where the impact on the domestic game is minimum. These are works that need to be carried out to raise the bar a little bit higher at the Victoria Stadium.”

When pressed on the procedure for the tender process involved in finding a suitable turf and FIFA’s involvement Mr Beiso  confirmed that “a number of companies have come” to Gibraltar in recent weeks to look at the stadium, further confirming FIFA’s full involvement in the tender process.

“The tender process is not a tender process carried out by either us or the Government, because the pitch is being paid for fully by FIFA,” the GFA General Secretary explained.

“It’s a FIFA tender process so they have gone out to their providers for an artificial surface. Four or five of them, I understand, have been in Gibraltar to access the works that are required. The tender packages have been submitted to FIFA.”

“There will now be a meeting of the Technical Committee of FIFA to make a decision of which company to use,” he added.

“Once that discussion has been made they will notify ourselves and the Government of Gibraltar. The process should be relatively quick after that.”

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