21 Apr 2009

Ferguson and Wenger unhappy with Wembley pitch

10:32 am on 21 April 2009

The Manchester United and Arsenal managers Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger rarely see eye to eye but both are united in their condemnation of the state of the Wembley Stadium pitch after the weekend's FA Cup semi-finals.

Neither went so far as to blame the playing surface for their defeats but Wenger described the pitch as an embarrassment for a national stadium after his side lost 2-1 to Chelsea.

Ferguson says he decided to leave many of his first-team regulars out of United's game against Everton on Sunday after he assessed the state of the pitch.

He says it's spongy and dead and hard to move the ball around on it quickly

Everton's manager David Moyes agrees but Chelsea's interim coach Guus Hiddink sees nothing wrong with the pitch which has been re-laid five times since the stadium opened two years ago.