I am going to speak about the experience Norway has had with artificial grass after playing on it for 26 years, about why artificial grass is so important for us, the requirements artificial grass has to fulfill, testings by laboratories and by players, projects we are working with now to investigate injuries, and the systems' influence on the environment.

Football is by far Norway’s biggest sport, both for girls and boys There are almost 2000 registered clubs with 20.000 teams and 325,000 active players playing a total of 300,000 matches each year.

To develop Norwegian football further, both in terms of breadth and at the top, we must be able to give players and coaches good training and match pitches throughout the year. This is an important goal for the Norwegian Football Association (NFF). The climatic conditions in our country impose clear limits on the playing of football. However, we cannot do anything about the weather, so we must look at what we can do to ensure satisfactory pitch conditions both during and after the growing season for grass. There are very few places in Norway where the grass-growing season is as long as the football season.

Norway’s first artificial turf pitches were built as long ago as 1977. There were no artificial grass types specially developed for European football, so we had to choose the nearest alternative – an artificial grass intended for American football and hockey.

This type of artificial grass was not filled with sand and the ball behaved very differently on this surface compared to a natural grass pitch. The playing properties were also very different and artificial grass quickly became a surface on which only children would want to play (in the absence of an alternative). Top players and trainers refused to use artificial grass.

The NFF and the Norwegian Ministry of Cultural Affairs were nevertheless convinced that artificial grass was right for Norway and set up a committee in 1984. The committee was charged with developing artificial grass and encouraging manufacturers to produce an artificial grass especially for football. The objective was to make the playing properties of artificial grass as close to those of an even and dry natural grass pitch as possible.

Players and coaches were consulted and, after 3-4 years of testing and meetings with manufacturers, an artificial grass was developed which was given the designation "artificial grass with sand for football". The new features of this grass were the significant reduction in the number of fibres and the filling of the grass with sand.

The suppliers we worked with were loyal and offered only this type of artificial grass to the Norwegian market. At the same time we introduced a test procedure for artificial grass. Only artificial grass that satisfied the test requirements was approved by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs for the allocation of playing funds (30-50 % subsidy) and by NFF for use for matches in the upper divisions. In practice this led to all artificial grass pitches constructed after 1990 being of this type.

We now have approximately 150 artificial grass pitches spread across the entire country. About 50 of them have installed the 3.th generation artificial grass. We have also constructed 14 halls with full-size artificial grass pitches and 20 halls with an artificial grass surface measuring 40 x 64 m.

Top players and trainers train exclusively on artificial grass in the autumn, winter and spring. When Norway qualified for the World Cup in 1994, top trainers stressed that this would not have been possible without artificial grass and halls. Norway qualified again in 1998 and for Euro 2000, and again artificial grass was given its share of the honour.

Clubs in the far north of Norway, with a growing season for grass of 1 month, can now more than hold their own nationally and have developed some of our greatest talents.

An artificial grass pitch costs about the same as a modern natural grass pitch to construct. The artificial pitch can however be used for far longer. Whilst Norwegian natural grass pitches can be used for 150-200 hours per year, artificial grass pitches are often used for 2000-2500 hours. The operating costs for a natural grass pitch are also 10-20 times higher per hour of use than for an artificial grass pitch.

Our artificial pitches are extremely important in bringing new players into the game. Children and young people often use the pitches when there is no organised training or match on the pitch. In many places, signs have had to be put up saying that the pitch is closed at 11 p.m. so that parents can get their children home in the evening!!

The market for artificial grass in the Nordic countries is expanding. The last 4-5 year we have seen new types of artificial grass that more and more could be compared with a good natural grass pitch. This has increased the interest for artificial grass among both grassroot as well as top-level football.

A modern, outdoor artificial grass now has a lifetime of 10-12 years, slightly shorter when used in winter. However, the pad can have a lifetime of 20-25 years and can therefore remain in place when the artificial grass is changed.

In Norway, there has for more than 15 years been allowed to play matches on artificial grass at any level, except for the men’s top division. From 2003 we have opened for matches even in our premiere league at the clubs home arena. This autumn the first PL-club will be playing on artificial grass at their brand new stadium.

For more than 10 years we have tested artificial grass systems in a laboratory. Grass installed in Norway had to pass these tests to be qualified for economical governmental support and to be allowed to play matches by the FA.

Both FIFA and UEFA consulted the Nordic Countries before setting their requirements for artificial grass. Both ended up pretty close to what we meant was the right values. We therefore decided to adopt the UEFA standard for top-level matches. In Norway that’s the

3 top divisions for men, and the two top divisions for woman.

For grassroot football we are more or less keeping our "old" requirements.

For 3 years we have, together with Sweden, engaged top-level players and teems to test different kind of artificial pitches. After a standard training program, we give each player an inquiry form, where we want their opinion about several different options.

The results have in some ways surprised us a bit. We have, among other things, learned that the players want softer artificial pitches than the natural grass pitches they under other circumstances characterise as almost perfect.

Work is currently under way in CEN (TC217) on the development of a European standard for sports surfaces. Artificial grass is an important part of this. However, this work has taken a long time and it looks at the moment as though we till are a bit way from achieving a consensus on a standard.

The Nordic countries long worked for that UEFA would take the lead in developing artificial grass for football. It is extremely important that UEFA controls this development so that we do not leave the market to manufacturers and suppliers. We saw this is being of vital importance to football in Europe. Therefore we welcomed UEFA’s new standard published in October 2002, and are looking forward to the further development from the manufactures We also expect UEFA to follow up their project with supporting economical 4-6 stadias all over Europe by following each one closely, and evaluate the requirements along the way.