Elite youth football deserves elite playing conditions

During the UEFA European Championship U19 in Romania, Hi Sports supported pitch quality monitoring at the Giulești Stadium & the Arcul de Triumf Stadium using the HiPSter, producing objective performance reports to help keep the surface consistent under tournament pressure.

This project is a practical example of how data strengthens three key areas in modern pitch management:

1. 1. proving playing quality,
   2. planning maintenance efficiently, and
   3. communicating clearly with all stakeholders
      
      

Objective evidence of playing quality

Playing quality is traditionally assessed through visual inspection and professional experience. While craftsmanship remains essential, data-driven monitoring adds objectivity and opens the conversation.
In a tournament setting, with short preparation windows and many stakeholders.
Data creates a shared reference point, giving something to talk about, supporting in decision-making and making communication clearer.

During the tournament, HiPSter measurements included, among others:

• Surface hardness and shock absorption
• Vertical deformation
• Rotational resistance
• Ball rebound
• Pitch construction and stability

These parameters reveal how a pitch truly performs under match conditions. Instead of a subjective impression, they provide an evidence-based assessment with measurable scores and clear reference values.

The outcome? In the build-up to the final, maintenance was adjusted based on the measured data. The result was both visible and measurable: in the last pre-match pitch evaluation for the final at the Giulești Stadium, the pitch achieved a 90% quality score, the highest score of the tournament.

Below this article, you can find the full detailed pitch report for the final of the tournament to see how results, benchmarks, and recommendations are presented.

From routine maintenance to targeted intervention

As Tassos Dedes A. Anastasios (Director, UniSports Evo SRL) put it:

“HiPSter measurements are easy to perform in twenty minutes by one person and turn maintenance from routine into science:
You know better what to do
You know better when to do it
You know better where to intervene.”

This captures the essence of data-driven pitch management.

Traditional maintenance often follows a fixed schedule: aerating, irrigating, rolling, mowing. With data, maintenance becomes situational and strategic:

What should you do?

• Data shows the stress factor: whether a pitch is too hard, has insufficient energy return, or is locally compacted.

When should you intervene?

• Trend analysis reveals when performance is declining toward critical threshold values.

Where should you intervene?

• Zone-based measurements highlight local differences, enabling targeted actions.

This means more efficient use of time, staff, and resources, and a higher, more consistent playing quality.

Industry trend: clubs and federations are building data into everyday pitch decisions

Across football, clubs and federations are using more and more data, not only for performance analysis on the pitch, but increasingly for the pitch itself. The same cultural shift that has made analytics “normal” in elite football operations is now extending into infrastructure and asset management: surfaces are being measured, benchmarked, and managed with repeatable data rather than relying on judgement alone.

For grounds teams, the driver is practical: tighter schedules, more usage, sustainability constraints, and higher expectations mean there’s less room for trial-and-error. Data supports quicker prioritization, clearer planning, and evidence-based decisions under pressure.
This also brings a cultural shift in the way of working from traditional management with a lot of time on the pitch, towards data-driven management with more time spend behind the computer.   

International standards play an important role in this growth. FIFA and UEFA provide the common language, the reference points and performance parameters that help organizations compare like-for-like, track change over time, and communicate transparently.

This shift isn’t about replacing expertise, it’s about strengthening expertise with objective insights, clearer benchmarking, and better communication under pressure.

The pitch report of the UEFA European Championship U-19 Final between Spain and the Netherlands: