Dutch top league football clubs pioneering with data-driven turf management

All Top League (Eredivisie) football clubs in the Netherlands will start using HiPSter analytics equipment to monitor their grass toppings, allowing them to focus on improvement and uniformity. Thanks to a partnership between Eredivisie CV and Holland Innovative, the Netherlands has become a pioneer in this data-driven management technology for ‘pitch topping’.

Among other things, the HiPSter analyzes the hardness, ball bounce, ball roll, and grip of the pitches, allowing clubs to make targeted efforts to improve the quality of their turf. The measurement kit can measure the field on eight quality aspects at any time of the day, after which the data is automatically loaded into a dashboard. This gives field managers (the staff at clubs responsible for maintaining and maintaining the fields) insight into the quality of the field and allows them to adjust their turf management accordingly.

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Independent field inspections are also carried out three times a season to guarantee the quality of the turf fields. Clubs must meet a predetermined standard to receive a financial contribution. In addition, players’ experiences are also added to the dashboard so that clubs have insight into the quality of their turf fields from multiple perspectives.

These developments stem from the ‘Eredivisie CV Change Agenda’. Since 2018, Eredivisie CV and premier league clubs have been making agreements to improve the quality of Eredivisie and Dutch soccer. More and more clubs have switched from artificial turf to natural grass by encouraging playing on a high-quality natural grass pitch. With the delivery of measuring kits, playing fields in the Eredivisie will be further improved as the next step in raising the level of Dutch professional soccer.

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Raising the level of football in the Netherlands

The collaboration between Eredivisie CV and Holland Innovative makes the Netherlands the first country in the world to support professional clubs with data-driven turf management in this way. The measuring kit HiPSter is special because it provides multiple data insights, allowing clubs to work in a focused way to improve and achieve uniformity in natural grass pitches.

The goal of data-driven turf management is to raise the level of football in the Netherlands. Unambiguous agreements on what is considered good enough will increase the quality of playing fields. This will ensure that players can perform at the top level. It also leaves more room for innovations, such as technological solutions that can help manage and maintain playing fields.

The goal of data-driven turf management is to raise the level of football in the Netherlands.