"We are very happy to again win the award after 2019/20 and 2020/21," said Linda Schöttler, general manager of the Bayer 04 Women's team. "That again shows the outstanding work of our grounds staff. Particularly as the Ulrich Haberland Stadium is used by several teams." The Werkself regularly complete their final pre-match training sessions here. And the U19 and U17 teams also play their home games at the UHS.
The awards are based on a pitch management tool of the DFB where the quality of the pitch is rated according to a ten-point system from 1-2 (very bad) through to 9-10 (excellent) after every game by the team managers of the home and away clubs as well as the referee involved. At the end of the season, the individual assessments produce an overall table.
The pitch at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium has a hybrid surface with a especially hard wearing natural grass playing surface strengthened with artificial fibres.
"The Pitch of the Year is an award for all our ground staff team," said Gail Schmitz, head groundsman at Bayer 04 who was responsible for an impressive team with 14 members of staff. "Everybody here makes their contribution to offer our Women's team players, our first team and the U19 and U17 youth sides a high quality playing surface. Both in the summer and the winter. We are very happy with the third title in succession. And the fact we were again able to come out on top against strong competition makes us a little bit proud."
