Grounds Manager-Wembley Stadium/The Football Association. UEFA Stadium Construction and Maintenance Panel member. Football Foundation Ambassador, Husband & Dad
My moment of 2021?? The Euro 2020 Wembley Grounds Team. It was a month of madness filled with adrenaline. Every hour of every day this team worked to deliver 17 uses in 30 days, from games, training to ceremony rehearsals.Honoured to lead this team into Euro 2020. Happy New Year!
Fury Vs Whyte 🥊
94,000 and 12,000 on pitch with hundreds of tonnes around the canopy/ring…..
⬇️
Emirates FA Cup Final 🏆
17 days in between images on a grass surface.
Incredibly Proud of my Team on this turn round.
@harry_V
@DGMoulds
Bren, Ross,
@MeaneyTurf
@AnthonySunney
Jimmy, This is fantastic! You do a fantastic job and you should be proud. Well done! Keep up the good work! How about you come and help us cut the real
@wembleystadium
one day?
Credit to
@kielbarrett
the Head Groundsman
@LUFC
and his team for turning around the pitch from boxing just 17 days ago for tonight’s England game. Hard working, humbled, down to earth guy!! Well done. It’s not easy!! 🏴
Welcome to Wembley Euro 2020. A very proud day for the team after years of planning. With ceremony rehearsals and Croatia training complete we start our tournament. As a kid growing up watching EURO96 this is an absolute dream to be involved. LETS GO!!
#Euro2020
The Stage is set.
On the back of Semi Finals we went straight into 2 days of closing ceremony rehearsals. I can’t thank my team enough. We couldn’t be prouder to do what we do.
#EURO2020
#ITA
#eng
Tottenham, Boxing, 3 NFL into a 23hr turn round for a Premier League Game, England, Nations League, Rugby League, EFL, Play Off’s, 5 a side, Champions League,Semi Finals, Company days, FA Games and Mad May. Wembley Groundstaff and Matchday Staff.....Please Take a Bow! INCREDIBLE
Stitching finished ✅
Brush ✅
Snagging ✅
Final amendments ✅
Seeding ✅
Letting John Hewitt who build the original Wembley pitch in 2006 seed the pitch ✅
Irrigation Test ✅
All ready for some sleep ✅
We honestly can’t stop smiling!! To be a part of today was special. Wembley stadium has never sounded so good. The place was rocking! That happened on the grass we prepare, that happened at the place we are so proud to work at. Thank you England!
Winter renovation complete & ready for the winter grow in. Koro, Spiral Rake, Top Dress, Verti-drain, Pro core, Tilth, Amendments, Seed, Feed, Sheet...now for the hardest bit...WAIT! Great shift from all the team & to have my team involved from the start as normal.
A nice little project complete. This flooring is made up from broken Wembley Stadium seats as part of our sustainability project. A bit of a first and thanks to Nick and his team at
@abacusfloorings
.
7 weeks old and it’s on it’s way.The first bit of reflected light through level 5’s windows has hit.15th March we get the real deal☀️
Nutrition’s been lean,Moisture has been reduced & light levels at optimum to make sure even in winter we make the plant work.A simple philosophy
My name is Karl, I was diagnosed with Anxiety and early stages of depression a while back.Since then, I’ve been on a journey.Hard as it is for me to finally speak, I know I’m not the only one. You are not alone and the future is bright.
#IveBouncedBack
#MentalHealthAwarenessDay
Wembley Winter Grow-in coming along well. With 4 hits of Primo Maxx in January at 4 weeks old it’s regulated the young winter growth & aided our establishment since the renovation. We do this every year, it’s become “normal” but we know we need to keep raising the bar.
@ben_kay8
@chorleyfc
What an effort!!
To say congratulations for all your hard work in getting the game on, Would you like to join my Grounds Team at this years Emirates FA Cup Final with us here at Wembley?
Today’s pattern is a little different…..it’s called “Winter Renovation”
Taking out all organic material including leaf and roots. 5mm Koro blades down to around 20mm. You can now visually see the hybrid fibre that gives us the stability to be multi use.
The Stage Is Set for the Woman’s Euro 2022 final.
25 days
Renovation➡️Grow-in➡️Ceremony Rehearsals ➡️Team Training➡️Final And throw in a heatwave just for good measure.
“A challenge only becomes an obstacle when you bow down to it”
Preparation well underway for the Welcome back of England to Wembley. But first we welcome Ukraine to train tomorrow evening.
Credit to the team and their hard work.
Stitching underway!! ✅
In short, this fibre gives us the reinforced stability we need to be Multi Use and push the boundaries when it comes to event transitions and increasing the pitch calendar to ensure we meet our targets as a business.
#BiggerPicture
Little before and after and we are now ready.
The 2022 Emirates FA Cup Final
Now we wait for the teams to arrive and the on pitch opening ceremony to begin for the 150th Final of this Iconic Cup.
Well Done Team, incredible turn round.
New pitch coming on well, but it’s down to the team. Absolute class acts in pushing this to its current position over Winter and through Christmas 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
78 days old in the middle of winter from seed to game. Usually have 95+ days but this year was very different. Extra time and penalties are just what we needed but its part of the game. Credit to the team. Positive from the start and kept their focus to deliver. Can do…not can’t
Today I enter my 17th year at Wembley. Constantly challenging and ever evolving. No day is ever the same. What would I tell the 19 year old Karl who started here. “Just keep going, head down, work hard, ask every question you can and keep your feet on the ground”
#GroundsWeek
Peterborough United Football Club are shocked and saddened by the death of 21-year-old Groundsman Will Whitney. Staff, as well as players, were left in shock, particularly given the tragic circumstances of his death.
#pufc
#AUnitedCity
8 days in. Lower rootzone complete and upper now being delivered. This is a 24hr a day 7 day a week operation from our contractor. Floodlights also being changed so temporary lights installed for safe working. Incredible challenge and what makes this place so special!
I like to keep a promise!!!! Hope that’s a little better
@Stlenssport
school.
Great to also meet 15 year old Fin who is an aspiring Groundsperson being trained up by
@SimonRudkins
Good luck Fin, keep working hard.
Ready for her first App of Primo Maxx tomorrow to start to push the energy down. Been a tricky grow in due to day and night temps dropping low (normal) and reduced team due to Covid but teamwork has kept it going. Few months time and we’ll have natural sunlight back!
Thank you to those of you have been with us over the years. But we wanted to do something special to remember those who have reached 100 Wembley games. Just a little reminder of how important our matchday team are & also how we’ve helped in many career paths through the years.
From start to finish! National League Play Off Final today and a hard verti cut and clean up to prepare the surface for FA Cup Final rehearsals this week and a busy FA Cup Final, FA Vase and FA Trophy next weekend.
I couldn’t be prouder of this team! I’ve asked them to do the unthinkable & impossible at times. They’ve stuck together,worked hard & given everything.Boxing in the pouring rain for 4 days then 9 days into a safe and playable pitch.Great to also have Adrian come over for the game
Sheets off on day 10. Plants roots now searching for water and minerals. Leaf is opening up and starting to photosynthesise as the seeds original carbohydrate source starts to run out. First cut tomorrow and then reverse drag brush to aid the plants establishment and its all go.
As a storm passes over.......I think they deserve to have a sit down after the season they have had. Tomorrow......we end our season and welcome 14 incredible concerts at Wembley over the summer.
Work Phone in the office, laptop closed, meetings clear.....time with my team for our first cut. Getting a work/life balance is hard and getting a healthy work balance is even harder. What are you doing to make sure you get the balance right?
An absolute honour to have
@mowermanjimmy
with us today at Wembley. Keep inspiring the youngsters who play on your pitches. From Grassroots to Wembley, it’s great to share the message that we are all in it together.
Apologies in advance…..it’s a boring one.
Brushed, dragged, aerated, brush, dragged, aerated 😴
6 pro cores later we are done. Fibre stood up and good walk over from the team. Ready for seeding and feeding after some irrigation repairs tomorrow.
Morning walk down the Gut. In NFL terms the Gut is the middle of the field where the heavy duty action happens and our Hybrid Turf system has held up very well. This area is normally a mud bath by the end.
Paint being washed off and we flip her round back into a Football pitch.
Upper rootzone in and now being graded. ✅
Synthetic surround being removed ready for tarmacking on Monday. ✅
Irrigation being fitted ✅
Heavy Duty Curb edge complete for concert weight ✅
Stitching machines arrived ✅
1st set of soil amendments added ✅
The end of day walk around when everyone has gone home is always good when you see a plan coming together. Pro Core ran through today and the methodology continues! Clean is king!
Soil conditioner 10.0.4 and Mycorrhizal Inoculant added and tithed in nicely with the seeder with R140 seed. Seeder made a nice seed bed, but will now try and clean off the fibre with some nice heavy irrigation. Heating on at 14 degrees ready for sheeting and lights on.
5 day old seedlings being hit with the 10 day cold snap of stadium temperatures of zero and below & snow isn’t ideal, but warmer weather and we push again into Christmas. Credit to the team on last week just keeping it alive and a great shift. All part of growing grass in Winter.
Clean up complete after Tottenham Vs Chelsea and now preparation for tomorrow’s EE Cup and 5 aside competition. Great shift from the team again! Couldn’t be prouder of this team.
2 games in one day at Wembley yesterday.
FA Vase at 1pm and FA Trophy at 4.30pm
Great turn round from game 1 into game 2 within 1hr.
Great to get last years postponed games on.
Well done
@DGMoulds
Bren,
@AnthonySunney
@harry_VB
and all our matchday team.
3 Games in 3 days for EFL Play Off’s. Brilliant shift from the team from last weekends double header. Not only have they been preparing the pitch but also juggling our own load in/out for Euros. Well Done Team.
Fantastic weekend of FA Cup Semi Final games! Feels great to have the pitch in a good place again and looking smart 👌🏻 Huge thank you to my team; Dan, Dave, Bren and Ant! We’ve had the year of our lives, let’s bring it home boys 💪🏻
#FACup
#Wembley
#Groundmanship
Never give up....always work harder....good is never good enough....this team just keeps going! They keep pounding at the door, wanting more. We have no right to be where we are today, but due to them.....we are! Wembley Groundstaff.....BRING IT HOME TEAM! FA Vase & FA Trophy ✅
An early Christmas present!! Over the Christmas period make sure you look after yourself and those around you!
Merry Christmas to you all and enjoy this Christmas period.
Much love from
Karl, Ant, Dave, Bren and Ross 👋🏻🎄
UEFA Champions League Final 2024
Part 1;
The Hero shots are for us all to see. The result of so many people’s work. But that result is through huge amounts of preparation and team work. I can’t congratulate the Grounds Team enough. They ran through walls for each other in an
August concert season ✅
Maximising the asset ✅
Hybrid carpet install in 3 days ✅
A bespoke pitch grown off site since June 2022 with
@HTProHybridTurf
and delivered ready for UEFA Nations League next week.
Credit to Hewitts Sports Turf, Tillers and Wembley Grounds team.
East Roof now open.The Grounds Team at Wembley have full control of the roof. During winter renovations we close this to artificially make a microclimate.Cold winds can be a killer for young seedlings. Now we have a mature plant,we have strength to combat these winds with no risk
Ready for Salford Vs Portsmouth and tomorrow Tranmere Vs Sunderland in the Papa John’s Trophy. Even a little HT hail storm for good measure to get us on our way.
Massive Congratulations to Leicester City. 22,000 fans have never sounded so good! Hope
@johnledwidge
and his team have a cracking night and soak it all in. Cracking shift as ever from the Wembley team in some pretty poor weather today and leading up. Well Done Team 👏🏻
*The Winter One*
“If you’re not agile, you become fragile”
Install Complete for the Wembley Pitch.
Our Previous hybrid stitch has now been removed and our 2024 HT Pro going in with a 55mm Hatko Carpet.
Completion on Friday and a 90mins pitch use on Tuesday to see how the
Meet Baby Standley. The team is becoming 3!! Over the moon to be welcoming our first little member of the family in March 2019. A little Eeyore is on its way!
England Vs Ivory Coast
3 usages in 4 days and good to see how the pitch has performed along with the data we have taken.
Post game we then start to prep for Papa Johns Final this coming weekend and welcoming back EFL. Team work! 👊🏼
Training Vs Reality
A little behind the scenes.
Due to Wembley always having Pre Game Shows or Ceremonies post players Warm up. Our average time post Warm up to removal Portable goals, Ball Stop Netting, Divot the pitch and water is a tight 4 minutes.
At the start of every
46mm of rainfall in 1 day.
Post game reverse drag brush,hoover,divot, lights on, fans out & another drag brush ready for a hoover again today.
With many more games, training sessions & closing ceremony rehearsals to come it was a great test for team and surface.
#euro2020
Sadly out of office doesn’t work when you’re growing grass. Great shift from the Wembley team today, getting ready to host Tottenham again.....incredible season so far. Merry Christmas from all the Wembley Groundstaff.
Stitching 90% complete ✅
Tarmac base layer installed to help reduce concert damage on our synthetic ✅
New concert proof stacker boxes and irrigation fittings installed ✅
Everyone still smiling ✅
Good weeks recovery by the team after a busy start to the season & last weekends double header going into tomorrow’s Carabao Cup Final. Games coming thick & fast. Nematode sampling, folia feed and introducing our now standard verti cut 2 days before games has helped us push on.
Good team effort and all ready to go for League 1 Play Off Final. Quick check of the weather coming in and catch up on the pitch data before KO. Next up......FA Cup Semi Final’s this weekend.
Start of 2024;
Removal of the 2023 HT Pro after a colossal end of season company day schedule. Then onto the Hybrid Stitch removal which we’ve hidden under the carpet over the last few years. It’s not been ideal having both systems together, but we’ve made it work and now time
Next up 3 NFL games & 4 training sessions in the next 3 weeks.Pitch in recovery mode after the pouring rain for Tottenham Vs Cardiff, good turn round and clean up by team.Natural light now completely gone till March 2019 for the pitch so it’s all about these till then.💡🌱🥊⚽️🏈
6 years ago today we prepared a football pitch in the garden of Buckingham Palace. This was the first football pitch in the garden’s history after being granted special permission from the Royal Household, in celebration of
@FA
150th birthday.
My slowest mark out ever!
9 Days off and probably 3 days till I started to feel like I was actually slowing down. Didn’t think I needed this, but I did.
I felt fine, started taking my health for granted? Probably!!
Pausing and resetting never does you any harm. Self therapy, call it what you like.
Tricky Pitch prep today in some miserable weather. With 26mm since 11pm last night it’s been…..challenging. Couldn’t do it without these ladies and gents. Thank you to Ellie, Bren,
@harry_VB
@DGMoulds
@AnthonySunney
and Ross. Brilliant night ahead!
#ENG
#SCO
#euro2020
Credit to the team on this one.
NFL into England Vs Australia. Never an easy flip when it comes to Multi Use. Team have worked one hell of a shift and I couldn’t be prouder.
3 runs with our little rake adaption and she looks nice and ready for some sand tomorrow. When I say adaption….we put some weights on the rake to dig it in to any upper organic.
Vitamin D boost for the team and even I cleared out the diary to have some play time outside.
-MAD MAY-
Credit to the Team on this one. 2 games in a day for The FA Vase & FA Trophy. Finished off with a good 5mm verti cut and Honda. Great to see all our matchday support team on the tools and saying those words “I Cut Wembley”
Family break away in Yorkshire to spend some time away and charge up the batteries. I’ll be honest, I used to be cr*p at this taking time away milarkie! But you soon realise, you wouldn’t let your phone run out of battery, so nor should you. 🔋✅
Favourite part of the day. Game over, clean up and easy knock back after the pitch played well again today and feedback received from both teams. We go again tomorrow!! Bring on the celery and eagles!!
@wembleystadium
First game announced for the 29th June, so time for 5 passes on full bore to make sure we keep her clean. Looked a sorry sight this morning but grass grows on the M25 so no issues. First up....League 2 Play Off Final.
Happy Birthday Wembley. 100 years old today and no better stadium in the world to deliver iconic events. It’s special for so many reasons and everyone has their Wembley moment. From playing “Wembley” in the park as a kid to watching their team or favourite artist. Iconic!
Tottenham vs Manchester City today and we even had the sunshine finally arrive. Difficult week but credit to the team. Stepping up to the challenge once again. Two FA Cup Semi Finals next weekend....onwards we go.
Busy shift from the team and another app of Promo Maxx going into the pitch today. Natural Light through the glass at the back of the stadium is a sign Springs on its way. Ready for a very busy season under the Arch.
⬇️ Busy week ahead
@wembleystadium
as we start our in-house clean out. We ran the rake during Euros but not to the extent we wanted to due to the schedule. Onto today and 5 passes later, we let it dry overnight….tomorrow’s clean up will be like a dust bowl! 👌🏻
Recovery mode 🏟️
After an incredible 6 weeks hosting 8⃣ games during
#EURO2020
and 2⃣ cup finals in 1⃣ day for the
#ChallengeCup
on Saturday, the hallowed turf will now rest and recover ahead of the Community Shield in August.
#MondayMotivation
Been away from HQ to have a break and keep pushing a good work life balance. But come back to see this today makes me happy. All credit to the team in Brendan,
@AnthonySunney
@DGMoulds
@harry_VB
Team feel empowered, space to grow and all good for them in their development.
We have Germination after 5 days. The embryonic root has broken the seed coating and second to this will be embryonic shoot which is covered in a little cover so it doesn’t get damaged breaking through the surface. In simpler terms…..red haze…..green haze…..off we go.
The foot marks of the Gypsy King, Tyson Fury. Grounds Management is also about using the asset to its potential & making financial gain. I’m here to sweat the asset & make it work while delivering a safe & playable surface. Multi Use, another side to our industry
#GroundsWeek