Some association soccer clubs in Europe installed synthetic lawn in the 1980s, which were called plastic pitches (often derisively) in countries such as England. In England several professional club venues had adopted synthetic soccer grass until the English FA banned them in 1988. Artificial lawn earned a poor reputation on both sides of the Atlantic with fans and especially with players. First generation synthetic soccer grasses were far less forgiving than natural grass leading to more joint impact and skin abrasion injuries.  Artificial turf was also regarded as aesthetically unappealing to many fans.

In the 1990s, many North American football clubs also removed their artificial (synthetic) lawns and re-installed grass, while others moved to new stadiums with state-of-the-art grass surfaces that were designed to withstand cold temperatures where the climate demanded it. The use of artificial soccer turf was later banned by FIFA, UEFA and by many domestic soccer associations. 

However in recent years, with the advent of third generation synthetic sports grasses, both governing bodies have expressed an interest in resurrecting the use of artificial surfaces as the related technologies continue to evolve. UEFA has now been heavily involved in programs to test artificial soccer grass for performance and safety.  A team of UEFA and FIFA associates in conjunction with a German company conducted tests in the Stadion Salzburg Wals-Siezenheim in Salzburg, Austria (which was due to have matches played on it during the UEFA EURO 2008). That stadium became the second FIFA 2 Star approved turf pitch in a European domestic top flight arena.  The first was Dutch club Heracles Almelo.

Many soccer clubs have installed the new synthetic lawn surfaces, most commonly as part of an all-weather training facility. Other soccer clubs which have maintained natural grass surfaces are now re-considering artificial grass. With soccer clubs in Europe looking to reduce both the maintenance costs and the number of winter matches that are cancelled due to frozen pitches, the issue has also been re-visited by soccer’s governing bodies.

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