LIGHTING IN FOOTBALL

Although today it is common to what we give importance, in its day the lighting of the football fields contributed significantly to the popularization and expansion of the sport and, among other things, was key to the development of the club competition more important in the world: the old European Cup, today Champions League.

The first lighting experiment to play a football match dates back to October 14, 1878. With two rudimentary battery-powered poles and dynamos at the Bramall Lane (Sheffield) stadium, it lit up to witness a clash that faced the two teams from the city. That was left in little more than an anecdote since, the insufficient light, the blackouts, and some accidents made it clear that it could not be something permanent.

In fact, the English Federation (FA) that was the one who ruled world football in the beginning was the one that delayed the entry into force of artificial light in the country (and therefore in Europe) denying some attempts to use spotlights in official matches In the 1930s, especially in Highbury, Arsenal Field, where Herbert Chapman had decided to install permanent lights. We had to wait until the early 50's when it finally approved its use in official matches.

In South America things were different. The Vélez Sarsfield Stadium became the first one with electric lighting in 1928 and in 1935 already played games with the night time. The same happened at the Centennial Stadium in Montevideo, built for the 1930 World Cup, it already had lighting. The 1937 Copa América, played in Buenos Aires, already included meetings in the light of the spotlights. In Mexico, the first-night game dates from 1940 and in Paraguay from 1949.

As we said before entering the 50 the FA gave its arm to twist and the light was made in the old continent. The premiere took place on September 19, 1951, in Highbury in the clash between the "Gunners" and the Hapoel of Tel Aviv that resulted in the victory of the premises 6-1.

But undoubtedly the team that took the most advantage of this was the Wolverhampton Wanderers. In 1954 the "Wolves" won their first League in the First Division (the current Premier League) and, taking advantage of the possibility of playing games at night, organized the so-called "Floodlight friendlies". In those clashes during the week, they challenged teams of great prestige at the time such as the Spartak in Moscow or the mighty Honvéd of Budapest where the "Powerful Magiares" militated and led them to proclaim themselves the "best team in the world."

The need to know who was really the best and the popularization of the lighting was undoubtedly what drove the development of the European Cup since the need to play during the week made it essential to have to play games at night.

In our country, the first experiments were carried out in Barcelona with a duel between FC Barcelona and CD Sabadell played on August 14, 1912.

The first serious attempt, however, was made in the Metropolitan on June 26, 1943, in a friendly match between Atlético and Valencia played at 9:00 p.m. and which resulted in a 1-4 visitor victory. The idea that motivated him was the possibility of playing in summer at hours when the heat was not so intense

That did not convince by the lack of power. The first to install it definitively was Real Madrid. On May 18, 1957, before the Recife of Brazil. According to some sources, the use of artificial light was the reason that made the meringue team abandon their traditional black socks to use the white ones they have been wearing since.

LED LIGHTING

Nowadays practically all football teams have lighting in their stadium, the current challenge is to reduce consumption and, for this reason, little by little, LED lighting is entering the scene.

In 2014 Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea, became the first major stadium to complete the lighting of the field with LED spotlights. The premiere took place on Tuesday, August 12 in a friendly match against Real Sociedad.

In Spain, the brand new Wanda Metropolitano del Atlético de Madrid has been the first to follow this new energy efficiency line.