In a video that has since gone viral, members of Senegal’s national soccer team loft soccer balls high into the air and watch as they land on the pitch with a deadened bounce, the rebounds barely reaching waist level.
The 17-second clip has garnered millions of views and shares since it was posted in late May, sparking online criticism, posts and some news stories about the state of North America’s World Cup pitches days before kickoff.
“The bounce is diabolical,” wrote one person on X, adding that they expected this would be the worst World Cup in history. “Gonna be a crazy amount of ACL tears,” wrote another. “Are US stadiums unprepared? Viral Senegal ball bounce clip sparks pitch fears,” read a headline from France 24.
Only it wasn’t a World Cup pitch at all.
The video showed the Senegalese players warming up before a May 31 friendly against the U.S. men’s national team at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., an event hosted by U.S. Soccer.
FIFA had no involvement in the pre-World Cup exhibition, short of supplying the balls.
This year’s tournament, the first to be staged across 16 cities in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, has faced intense international scrutiny over issues ranging from immigration and border policies to human-rights concerns and prohibitive ticket prices.
The video of the deadened bounce, along with other clips that some viewers believed showed thin layers of sod being installed over concrete, raised new questions about pitch readiness and player safety.
The Globe and Mail reported in April on the extensive, years-long process that went into developing FIFA’s 2026 World Cup pitches. Each field must meet stringent performance standards – including for ball bounce, surface hardness and shock absorption – while producing consistent playing conditions across all 16 tournament venues, regardless of climate or elevation.
Inside the massive effort to grow World Cup grass
John Sorochan, a distinguished professor in turfgrass science at the University of Tennessee whom FIFA tapped to lead a five-year research project to develop this year’s World Cup pitches, said the field in the viral video is fundamentally different from those installed at host city venues.
The Charlotte pitch consisted of sod laid over the stadium’s usual artificial turf, separated by a drainage layer, he said.
“It was too shallow for proper ball bounce to happen, because the drainage layer and sod only over synthetic turf deadened the ability for the ball to bounce properly,” he said.
Turfgrass expert John Sorochan helped develop the World Cup fields. He works with the fLEX machine, which simulates player movement to assess how a pitch responds to acceleration, deceleration and cutting movements.Jessica Tezak/The Globe and Mail
In contrast, World Cup stadiums that usually have artificial turf are layered with heavy-duty plastic or aluminum modular panels, a water-resistant liner, a drainage and irrigation system and a minimum of eight inches of sand – enough so that what lies beneath has no impact on how a ball bounces or rolls, or what the players feel, Dr. Sorochan said.
For example, the sod at Vancouver’s BC Place stadium, installed a month before kickoff, sits on 13 inches of sand and peat.
Under FIFA’s World Cup pitch standards, a properly inflated soccer ball dropped from a height of two metres must rebound between 60 centimetres and one metre. It’s a measure used to assess pitch performance that Dr. Sorochan’s team spent years testing, and one that underpins his confidence in the surfaces.
“The return on investment for FIFA investing in evidence-based research, and having strict pitch construction requirements, gives assurance that the FIFA World Cup 2026 pitches will perform at the highest level,” he said.
The World Cup takes place from June 11 to July 19. Canada’s opening match against Bosnia-Herzegovina is scheduled for Friday, June 12 in Toronto.
Ask us your questions about the World Cup
FIFA frenzy is taking hold, and on Tuesday, June 9 at 1 p.m. ET, our soccer experts are answering your questions about the 2026 men’s tournament. From Canada’s chances at a deep run to new rules and the politics of co-hosting with the U.S. and Mexico, submit your questions in the form below or send an e-mail to audience@globeandmail.com with “World Cup question” in the subject line.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct the World Cup’s end date: July 19.