ISL 2025-26: Weeks before Chennaiyin FC’s first home match, Nehru Stadium pitch lies bare

Two-time Indian Super League (ISL) champions Chennaiyin FC are yet to earn a point after playing both their matches away so far.

At home, hundreds of kilometers away, the home base, the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, also known as Marina Arena, paints an equally dull picture.

The playing surface remains dry, with patches of dried grass and large holes to the extent that the water sprinklers are almost visible, possibly due to extensive digging of the surface to erect truss systems or temporary stands during non-football events.

Chennaiyin will play four matches away from home before returning home to take on FC Goa on March 22 – a delay caused by an AR Rahman concert on February 14 and a corporate event at the venue a week earlier.

«We are certainly working to ensure it is a standard quality pitch – safe to play on for the players, a pitch that is presentable. The pitch was in extremely good condition when the season ended last year. Although it probably won’t be of that standard, it won’t be an unsafe pitch,» a source close to the club told Sportstar.

The source also added that as summer has started in the city, there are low water levels in the stadium and Chennaiyin is bringing in water tankers from outside to water the pitch.

It has been almost two weeks since the concert at the venue and work only started at the beginning of the fourth week of this month. The team in charge of relaying the field is still waiting for the Bermuda grass to be used on the field to be shipped.

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«We are short of time now, it takes at least two to three months to deliver a pitch at the best quality without any movement or external interference. Now we are short of time and during the early morning hours sometimes dogs enter the pitch. There are so many birds that we have to place the grass and repair it with our hands. That is why we have someone take care of the pitch all the time so that what is left is not affected,» said a groundsman working at the stadium.

With the league underway, the pitch has been handed over to the club by the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu, and the stadium officer believes there is no cause for concern.

«Usually some program takes place every year. This year we had continuous events at the stadium, but the grass will grow for only 10 to 15 days as we have a river sandy ground,» said P. Venkatesh, stadium officer of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

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Ahead of the Khelo India Youth Games in Chennai in 2024, the state government has spent Rs 25 crore on renovating the stadium and re-laying the 800-metre synthetic running track with four layers of synthetic elastic rubber.

The track is now covered in bumps and dirt, likely from footprints and food waste left by the thousands who took the field during the concert.

«We clean it, every Sunday we wash it. The boys’ hostel students use the track every morning. They also practice pole vaulting and long jump on the track, so I think there is no problem,» he added.

Published on February 26, 2026