By Daniel Libit
Sports Investigative Reporter
FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, is paying two American land-grant universities—Tennessee and Michigan State—a combined $3.13 million to figure out how to grow and maintain perfect pitches for the 2026 World Cup host stadiums and practice sites.
The agreement, which Sportico obtained through a public records request, is structured in such a way that Tennessee is considered the “prime recipient” of the project, while Michigan State is designated as the “subrecipient.” Tennessee is therefore “responsible for the performance of MSU,” the agreement states.
Both schools are evenly splitting FIFA’s funds, which are going to pay for the salaries and fringe benefits of the researchers, travel, materials and supplies, grad student tuition and fees, and other direct costs. The University of Tennessee Research Foundation is also party to the arrangement.
This upcoming men’s World Cup will be the first to span three separate countries—the United States, Canada and Mexico—requiring an array of turfs that will work in both cool, arid environments as well as hot, tropical ones. The quadrennial international soccer championship follows this summer’s Copa América games hosted in the U.S., which were riven with criticisms about the quality and conditions of the playing surfaces.
World Cup 2026 will be played by 48 teams in the stadiums of 16 cities and scores of practice facilities. The objective of the research is to, as the agreement puts it, “homogenize the playing surface conditions as much as possible, by studying the paper species of turf for “soccer ball roll, ball bounce and consistency.”
FIFA originally struck its research agreement with Tennessee on Jan. 1, 2022, five months before the host cities and venues were publicly unveiled. The agreement was later amended in August 2023 to change the time from which pre-award costs would be authorized, but the total funding remained the same. Tennessee then entered into a separate agreement with Michigan State.
This past spring, Tennessee hosted a World Cup turf research day, which was attended by a FIFA delegation and “pitch managers” from each of the host city stadiums. A follow-up gathering was hosted earlier this month at Michigan State.
“At this stage of the pitch preparations I am delighted with what the team have been able to research and already bring to life,” Alan David Ferguson, Senior Pitch Management Manager at FIFA, said at the time.
The project, which Sportico first reported on last October, is being led by John Sorochan, the distinguished professor of turfgrass science and management at UT’s Institute of Agriculture, along with MSU turfgrass research professor John “Trey” Rogers III. For the 1994 World Cup, Rogers was involved in preparing the field inside the Pontiac Silverdome, the former home of the Detroit Lions and the first indoor World Cup venue.
The current research is budgeted for completion in June–a year before the 2026 World Cup games are slated to commence–and all outward signs thus far indicate it is on schedule. In a statement, Sorochan hailed the partnership as the “first time ever” FIFA has supported “scientific research to better future World Cups.” (FIFA’s chief legal officer, Emilio Garcia Silvero, is currently instructing a soccer law class at the University of Miami.)
Rogers, in a statement, said, “FIFA’s research support … will allow us to develop and perfect temporary turf even further and to usher in an unbelievable era.”
A Michigan State document, titled “budget justification,” laid out its preliminary staffing needs for a research technician with a one-year base salary of $63,085; two graduate research assistants earning monthly stipends of $2,250; and 2,000 of “temporary/hourly labor” from undergraduate employees or temp workers earning an hourly rate of $12.50.
The overall research agreement contemplated a number of performance milestone events that were expected to be achieved by the second quarters of 2023, 2024 and 2025. For example, one of the first milestones was for the research teams to identify which shock pads beneath the playing surface would be capable of absorbing 168 pounds of force—equaling the average weight of the players in the 2018 World Cup.
By earlier this year, the researchers were supposed to “identify suitable grass species and varieties” for indoor stadium conditions, as well as the best light grow systems to grow the sod. By this past June, all of the data conducted from indoor trials was to be incorporated into specific recommendations for each of the 16 host stadiums. The next iteration of the project will be to complete the design phase, speak with suppliers, and confirm selection of fertilizer and chemicals to be used on the pitches.
Beyond deliverables, a significant focus of the research agreement pertains to the allocation of rights to the intellectual property and creative work that would arise from the research.
For example, the agreement states that FIFA can pay the University of Tennessee Research Foundation to obtain a “worldwide royalty-bearing exclusive license” that would utilize any of the turf project’s jointly held IP. Accordingly, the research foundation and FIFA would have 12 months to negotiate a “commercialization agreement satisfactory to both parties.” Notably, researchers have already discussed how their findings could benefit other properties, from the NFL to local parks and recreation departments.
For now, there have yet to be any known patent applications arising from the research.
The universities will own outright any of the equipment purchased for the project. They will also have the right to publish the results of the research, if doing so isn’t deemed to “adversely affect” FIFA’s interests and so long as they first provide an advance copy of the manuscript to the governing body.
Jacob Feldman contributed to this report.
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