This football pitch could kill you, says undersoil heating firm

Tracer Electrical Systems (TES) also says the system is not powerful enough to thaw the pitch on very cold days.

The company has refused to pay the firm which supplied the equipment it fitted, and has now been taken to court where its claims will be put before a judge.

Falkirk Football Club last night refused to comment on the company's claims. But the Scottish Football Association said it was satisfied that the pitch was safe. Falkirk Council and Mowlem, the ground's contractors, also passed it as safe.

TES's claims come just three weeks after the club was rocked by the death of Craig Gowans, a 17-year old apprentice footballer who was electrocuted after equipment he was carrying at the club's training pitch touched an overhead wire.

Falkirk's under-pitch heating was installed when the club moved to its new stadium, which cost 8 million, last July.

The dispute over the system has now reached the courts, with a first hearing taking place in Leeds yesterday.

The system's manufacturer, Inditherm, strongly denies TES's claims and is suing the company for the money it says it is owed.

Paul Metcalf, director of TES, a Liverpool-based firm, said last night: "We haven't paid and now we're being sued by them. But we didn't pay them because we didn't believe the system was finished. In our defence for the court case we had to get a report done to highlight what the faults with the pitch were.

"The report says that, under certain circumstances, there is a possibility of it being unsafe. And a game was postponed in January, so why didn't the system work?

"The system is faulty and there was a design fault with it. In our opinion, you'd need to dig up the whole pitch to get remedial work done. They can change the voltage if they want, but it is the principle of the design of the heaters that is unsafe."

The report, by electrical expert Dr Leslie Campbell, found that the system would work only to 60 per cent of its capacity. He also reported that "a sharp metallic object puncturing the PVC sheet will cause an electrical shock to the person holding the object".

Rules of entry into the Scottish Premier League state that all member clubs must have "an efficient and effective system of winter pitch protection at its registered ground, and that the system is efficiently and effectively operated".

Falkirk's ground was the first major stadium to use Inditherm's conductive polymer heating technology, which was intended to make the club significant operational cost savings over traditional gas or water installations.

Inditherm insists the undersoil heating is safe. Its chief executive, Richard Harpum, said: "The system complies with all the regulations and runs at a safe extra low voltage, below 50 volts.

"You can actually touch the stuff running at 50 volts and you wouldn't even feel it. Also, it is one foot underground, so you wouldn't even get a fork long enough.

"It is safe and if you stuck a fork through it you might damage the system - but nothing else would happen."

The system also has been used on training grounds by Chelsea football club. Their groundsman, Jason Griffin, said that the system has worked well. He said: "We've had no such problems at all with it. It's all worked fine."

Peter Eadie, chief executive of Falkirk Stadium, was approached last night about the pitch fears and confirmed he would be in touch with Mr Metcalf about his claims.

An SPL spokesman said: "Inspections have taken place at Falkirk's grounds and it is compliant with our regulations.

"Falkirk have the correct certifications and we are unaware of any reason to suggest anything otherwise."