Soccer City pitch to be in top shape for final

Johannesburg (DPA)- FIFA expects the pitch at Soccer City to be in top shape for Sunday's World Cup final.

The surface showed discolouration at the northern end of the Soweto stadium for the quarter-final match between Ghana and Uruguay but the situation has improved significantly since thanks to the use of germination blankets and supplemental growth lights.

"We have cancelled a number of training sessions during the tournament so that the pitch can be in the best possible condition," FIFA spokesman Nicolas Maingot said Tuesday.

"We are not aware of any particular concern or worry about the state of the pitch for Sunday's final."

World Cup pitches in high-altitude Johannesburg and Pretoria have had problems with frost during the tournament while the surfaces in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth have at times had to be closed because of rain.

Despite the problems, the pitches at this year's World Cup are a vast improvement on the surfaces that teams had to deal with at the 2009 Confederations Cup, and so far there have been no complaints from any of the 32 participating teams.