The NFL decided last week not to play the Chiefs-Rams game at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, after a number of events there left the grass torn up. But the NFL is also taking some heat for being the culprits in tearing up the field at its other international venue.
That venue is Wembley Stadium, where the NFL played three games last month. The wear and tear from those games has English soccer fans crying foul about the playing surface.
“Wembley pitch still a disaster thanks to the NFL,” wrote the popular soccer commentators known as the Men In Blazers on their Twitter account. “Spurs should start playing at field in better health. Like the AZTECA.”
And an English sports website wrote that soccer team Manchester City “expressed concerns about the condition of the grass last month and the damage caused by the American football.”
Although it’s common for high schools and park districts to have soccer and football teams share fields, there has long been talk that at the highest levels of pro sports, soccer and football really shouldn’t be played on a shared playing surface. That’s why the NFL is an investor in the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London, which was built with the NFL in mind, with separate grass and synthetic fields that can be rolled in or out depending on whether soccer or American football is being played. That may have to become the norm if the NFL wants to keep growing American football in countries where soccer is king.
