Yorkshire firm turfs itself out of Wembley

The Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI), based in Bingley, made the announcement after mounting criticism of the pitch at the country's national stadium.

The STRI, which has been pitch consultant for the last 13 months, will relinquish the role at the end of this month.

STRI chief executive Gordon McKillop said: "We have had many constructive and positive discussions with Wembley over the last few weeks on what would be the best way forward to make significant improvements to the pitch.

"In relation to this, STRI presented an alternative strategy for 2010 to change the construction of the pitch, which Wembley agreed was the best way forward and is now proceeding with this.

"We are pleased that Wembley has adopted our proposed strategy which should see improvements to the pitch during 2010.

"This new structure of pitch does not require the previous level of research and consultancy from the STRI team and, therefore, we feel it is the right time to resign."

The pitch at Wembley has been the focus of much condemnation in recent months.

After the FA Cup semi-finals in April Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp described the surface as "ridiculous" while Spurs and England striker Peter Crouch said the pitch was the worst he had encountered.

Wembley chiefs relaid the pitch at a cost of around 125,000 and embarked on a major review of the surface.