It was five years ago that the small-sided football association Socca Germany (Deutscher Kleinfeld-Fußball-Verband) celebrated its biggest success and won the SOCCA World Cup in Portugal. History was made on a playing surface developed specially by Polytan.
Now the World Cup is coming to Germany – to the Ruhr area, to be precise. From 2nd June onwards, 44 nations will compete against each other at the Kennedyplatz in Essen. In a temporary stadium in the middle of the city, holding 3,000 fans, Polytan will once again play an important role as the tournament’s official synthetic turf partner.
After finishing in 4th place at the last World Cup in Budapest, the German national team is highly motivated to improve its standing. National coach Malte Froehlich has appointed 15 players to the squad, which is raring to accomplish great things with the support of a home audience.
As at the previous Socca World Cups in Lisbon, Portugal 2018 and Rethymno, Greece 2019, the chosen playing surface is LigaTurf Socca synthetic turf. Like the LigaTurf Cross, the specially developed turf for the small-sided football world championship consists of straight and textured fibres and provides optimal running and playing comfort for the players.
President of Socca Germany, Christoph Köchy senses great anticipation: “It will be an extraordinary experience to construct a stadium in the middle of the Ruhr metropolis, the heart of German football. We are delighted to have secured Polytan as our chosen partner for the playing surface, and the team can look forward to perfect playing conditions.”
“We are thrilled to once again be a partner of this incredible sporting event and that the SOCCA World Cup will take place in Germany this year. As a German manufacturer, this is a home game for us, and the synthetic turf is produced only a few kilometres away from Essen at our production facility in Grefrath. Events like this one show that after the pandemic, sporting events are once again returning directly to city centres and resonating with people emotionally,” explains Tobias Müller, Marketing Director at Polytan GmbH. Thanos Papadopoulos, CEO of the International Socca Federation, is also extremely satisfied: “The renewed partnership with Polytan demonstrate the trust between both sides. SOCCA has enormous potential for growth, and with strong partners, we look optimistically to the future.”
