The Paul Desgouillons stadium in Montlhéry, in the Île-de-France region, is entirely dedicated to the training and matches of E.S.A. Linas-Montlhéry. This rapidly growing club has recently moved up from regional level 1 to national level 3 of the French football league. This promotion is, of course, associated with the obligation to transform the stadium, within three years, in order to adapt it to the technical requirements of its new ranking.
In 2020, the stadium management consequently undertook a major renovation of the pitch, in collaboration with Techni'cité and MONDO. In order to accommodate the club's 25 teams, who are on the pitch seven days a week for a total of 40-50 hours a week - much less during the pandemic - the stadium needed to be equipped with a surface that would maintain its technical properties despite frequent use. Therefore, the management decided to replace the natural grass with an artificial turf system, Mondoturf 4NX 16 45 AER EFT 10, in its two-tone version.
For Philippe Rodari, director of technical services at the municipality of Montlhéry, natural grass severely limited the potential use of the pitch. The need for a synthetic surface became apparent. After several visits to neighbouring stadiums, it was the Mondoturf surface that won over the project team.
The MONDO system not only provides good fibre resilience and a high shock absorption coefficient, thanks to its elastic underlay, but it also has an environmentally friendly and long-lasting infill, Ecofill Rebound®.
"The performance filler in TPE [environmentally-friendly thermoplastic] was also chosen for its recyclability. This pitch is now widely used, to the delight of the club and the athletes," says Philippe Rodari.
According to Olivier Strobel, Techni'cité project manager, "the most important thing is to listen to the client. We had to create a pitch and a lighting system that met the required standards of the French league to allow the club to continue to grow. And we did: the new stadium was inaugurated on 31th January 2021. According to club president Michael Bertansetti, everyone, players, and coaches alike, have already been won over by the new surface. Other clubs have also come to visit the stadium to see the changes.
"A new chapter opens for the club and we envisage a bright future to be experienced together with our many fantastic partners!" stated the Facebook page of E.S.A. Linas-Montlhéry on the occasion of the first game on the new pitch. Let's hope that this new stadium will truly support the players in their ascent towards the Olympus of football.