Dave Saltman, the former head groundsman at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, has blasted the state of the Wembley pitch, claiming that the playing surface at England's national stadium is embarrasssing.
The slippery nature of the surface attracted criticism following the weekend's two FA Cup semi-finals, and Saltman believes that the heavy schedule of events from different sports held on the pitch with such frequency means that the problems have become almost impossible to solve.
"It's never going to be perfect because there will be times when the timescales between different events are so tight that you have to hold your hands up and say 'That is going to have to do for the next game'," Saltman told reporters.
"It cannot ever be viewed like one of the Premier League grounds, unless Wembley look at reducing the amount of different events that are on there.
"For our industry, it has been a major thorn in our side.
"British groundsmanship and greenkeeping right across all grass sports is revered the world over.
"Unfortunately our iconic stadium, the home of football, has been an embarrassment on a global scale for the country, for the football team and for the grounds industry.
"In some respects there is no getting away from this appalling events schedule that they have.
"It's all very well managers quite rightly standing up and saying 'How are we expected to put our £100 million squads out on this pitch?', but Wembley have to make a decision about whether they are going to upset the bank manager or upset the English league."
England's next game at Wembley is the May 24 friendly against Mexico. Before that there will be the Championship play-off finals, a Saracens rugby union match and the FA Cup final on the surface, making things difficult for the ground staff once again.
Geoff Webb, chief executive of the Institute of Groundsmanship (IOG) believes that an inquiry into the state of the pitch must be held urgently.
"The IOG believes UK grounds management leads the world and, therefore, the expertise to overcome and solve the Wembley problem does exist," he said.
"We would suggest that an independent inquiry would be in the best interests of everyone to understand the nature and cause of the ongoing issues concerning Wembley's playing surface and the IOG would be a willing partner in facilitating a possible solution.
"We would welcome the opportunity to lend our expertise to solve the problem."
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