Mauricio Pochettino believes Rochdale pitch unsuitable to host FA Cup tie against Tottenham

Spurs are due to play at Spotland Stadium after Rochdale won their FA Cup fourth round replay on Tuesday night. But the state of the pitch has prompted serious worries ahead of the match

The Spotland pitch is in a dreadful state (Getty)

Mauricio Pochettino has urged the Football Association to step in and judge whether Rochdale’s pitch is good enough to host their FA Cup fifth-round match with Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday 18 February.

Spurs are due to play at Spotland Stadium after Rochdale won their FA Cup fourth round replay on Tuesday night. But the state of the sandy, muddy pitch, judged to be the worst in the Football League, has prompted serious worries ahead of the match.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference this afternoon, Pochettino confirmed that he was worried about the pitch which he said “was not in a condition to play football”. Pochettino is set to discuss the issue with Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy this afternoon to “find a solution” to a fixture that could be a danger to players from both sides.

“I think you are going to struggle, no? But not only us. Them, too,” Pochettino warned. “I think the FA need to assess how the pitch is and then to take a decision about if it's good for the FA Cup, good for the players, good for the teams to play in this type of pitch, in that condition that I think doesn't help football.”

The pitch has seen one home game played in the last month – the fourth-round replay 1-0 win over Millwall on Tuesday – and there is little prospect of it improving much in the next 10 days. “I don’t know why what happened, happened with this pitch,” Pochettino said. “But it’s true I’ve seen the picture, I think it’s not a pitch in a condition to play football.”

Pochettino is worried about his players getting injured but said that he is worried about Rochdale’s players getting injured too. “It’s about providing a safe place to play for the players,” Pochettino said. “I think it's a big risk to play in a pitch like this – if the pictures I have seen give an accurate impression of the state of it. If it is like I saw in the pictures, I think you cannot play football on it. That is my point of view.”


 Pochettino has urged the FA to assess the state of the pitch 
 (Getty)

Pochettino urged the FA again to have another look at pitch or find another venue. “Not because we are Tottenham, no, I think Rochdale cannot play football there, too,” he said. “And it's a massive risk for their players, too. Maybe the FA need to go in and try to take a very good decision for football – not only because we have need to go and play there. I am going to speak with the chairman today in the afternoon to try to find a solution with the club, to see what we can do.”

However, the FA believe that Rochdale have earned the right to play the game at home and want to give them the best possible chance of hosting the match. The FA will help Rochdale by subsidising a pitch protection programme, and will closely monitor how the pitch plays when Rochdale host Fleetwood Town on Saturday.

Even if the two clubs are both open to switch to Wembley, the FA will only sanction that under extreme circumstances, such as the pitch being flooded, and they do not believe those circumstances have been met. The FA do not want to set a precedent for matches being switched for financial reasons.