Scottish Premiership rivals Kilmarnock have finally agreed to scrap their plastic pitch in news which will be music to the ears of Rangers.
As reported by BBC Sport, Kilmarnock hope to return to a grass surface at Rugby Park from the 2025/26 season due to the construction of a new training complex.
Majority shareholder Billy Bowie is still awaiting planning permission to be granted for the ambitious project, which will see two new pitches and a 250-person stand built in Ayrshire.
With the new location set to house the Kilmarnock youth team and the club’s Women’s team, the plastic pitch at Rugby Park will be lifted and laid at the new training complex.
Kilmarnock will then go back to a grass pitch and the news will be welcomed by Rangers and the club’s fans, with several managers of the Ibrox club outspoken about the surfaces.
Kilmarnock to scrap plastic pitch
Former Rangers boss Steven Gerrard branded the surfaces “dangerous” in 2019 and called for them to be banned from the Scottish top flight.
This was after a row with then Kilmarnock boss Steve Clarke in 2018 regarding the Rugby Park surface following a devastating injury to Jamie Murphy.
The Scotland international saw his initially promising Rangers career decimated by an injury on Kilmarnock’s surface in 2018 with Gerrard claiming they have “elite football should’ve have plastic pitches”.
Michael Beale was also outspoken about the Kilmarnock pitch after a 3-2 victory in January claiming the surface guaranteed the game wouldn’t be a “beauty contest”.
Kilmarnock aren’t the only ones with a plastic surface of course, with Livingston also using a synthetic pitch with Rangers visiting the club over the weekend.
Current Rangers manager Philippe Clement was also outspoken about the surface and echoed the claims from Steven Gerrard that the game is better off without them.
The Rangers manager claims “there’s a reason” the top leagues in European football don’t use the surfaces and after the game branded the pitches “tricky”.
“For the quality of football, for the quality of spectators to watch good football games, it needs to be on grass pitches,” said Clement.
Kilmarnock first installed their plastic pitch at Rugby Park in summer of 2014 and most recently had a new pitch installed in the summer of 2019.
