The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanical characteristics of football pitches such as hardness and traction. Field tests, including an impact hammer test and a traction test, were performed at 13 natural-turf pitches and eight artificial-turf pitches. Based on the field test data, differences between the natural-turf and artificial-turf pitches, and seasonal variations in their mechanical characteristics, and the influence of the presence or absence of turf-grass on traction characteristics are discussed. The main difference between natural-turf and artificial-turf is highlighted in the shape of a rotational resistance curve. Furthermore, the natural-turf pitch had significant seasonal variation in both hardness and traction, while that was not the case with the artificial-turf pitch.

This study examines the relationships between the clubs’ level of aerobic fitness and their respective positional ranking as well as with the clubs’ other league performance variables such as number of matches won, drawn or lost, goals scored or conceded, and total points accumulated at end of the league season, for three consecutive seasons. Outfield-position players from all clubs in the top division of the Singapore professional soccer league were tested for their aerobic fitness using the 20-m multi-stage shuttle run test (MST) at post pre-season training phase and the clubs’ respective rankings and other performance variables at the end of the 2002, 2003, and 2004 league seasons were noted. There was a significant correlation between the clubs’ mean MST results and their league positions for 2003 (Spearman’s rho=-0.67, P =0.02), but not for 2002 and 2004 seasons (both rho=-0.37, P >0.22). Except for the variable of drawn matches in 2004, Pearson’s correlation showed no other significant relationship between the clubs’ MST and their other performance variables in all three seasons (P>0.05). Given the limited validity of the 2003 data, the present evidence suggests a poor association and lack of consistency in the relationships between clubs’ aerobic fitness level and their league positional ranking and performance variables.