Football pitches in top shape all year round

Krinkels closes football season

The start of the summer holidays means a brief ‘breather’ for Krinkels. Because the landscaping contractor maintains more than 300 football pitches in Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia throughout the year. From weekly mowing to annual re-laying at the end of the season. The man behind the crazy maintenance planning is site manager Steven Mattelin.

Child at home on almost every football pitch

You will find Krinkels at the highest divisions of the Jupiler Pro League: including KV Oostende, KMSK Deinze and Le Canonnier in Mouscron. They look after football grounds in our major Belgian cities: Ghent, Antwerp, Charleroi and Ostend. And they maintain the Sport Vlaanderen sites. 

With that, Krinkels puts 70 people to work full-time, from eight branches. They mow the turf every week, check the lines, goal nets, posts and any playing damage. And they provide extra maintenance of fields and access roads against important tournaments and matches. Think of the KDB Cup in Drongen.

Weekly maintenance and regeneration

Steven Mattelin: “Take Ostend, for example, with its 20 football pitches. Training sessions and matches take place there throughout the week. In order to maintain those fields, I make a meticulous planning in consultation with the customer about when we can work on which field. We are busy six days a week! Besides the weekly maintenance, the annual regeneration of the fields is one of our specialities. At the end of the football season, we remove the top layer of the pitch. Then we bring in fresh dress soil to make the pitch completely flat again. We aerate and sow new grass. So the pitches are ready to play by the start of the season.” “Not only the planning of our people, but also that of logistics is a feat. We have numerous trucks and trailers to move the more than 20 tractors including aerators, sedgers, scarifiers, mowers, ecodressers, wheel loaders, dumpers, mowers, substrates, grass seeds and fertilisers.”

Drought problem

“The fact that I have to rearrange the schedule on a regular basis is something I am used to by now,” Mattelin explains. “Then there is still a tournament at the end of the season, an extra training session, or an event for which we have to prepare the fields. But what is more challenging is the changing climate. Our customers expect their fields to look tiptop and playable at all times. But when the drought lasts for weeks, it is a real problem. Then, when we aerate or ecodress the lawns, the sand just blows away instead of falling back onto the pitch. It requires a different kind of maintenance. We adapt our types of grass seeds, treat the grass so it absorbs moisture better, and work with systems to better buffer rainwater. But it does create extra stress. You don't want to know how often I check the weather forecasts.”

Innovation

To allow even more customers to enjoy a perfectly maintained turf, Krinkels invested in lining robots a few years ago. These line football fields precisely, quickly and economically. The contractor also works with weed robots: they scan your sports fields for weeds and carefully drill out the plants you would rather get rid of. You can also hire such a robot. You then get a short training before you start working with it.

Total package for sports ground maintenance

Mattelin: “Our offer goes far beyond football pitches. We construct, maintain and repair all kinds of play and sports grounds. Finnish slopes, skate parks, BMX tracks, omnisports fields including the cycling and walking paths around them. Natural grass, artificial grass and hybrid grass: all that expertise is in our hands.” Krinkels put a sweet ending to the football season this year. One of the employees nominated the team for a ‘Joe Gateau’ created by pastry chef Roger van Damme. A tasted finale!