Boca Juniors to move home games for third time due to Bombonera pitch condition

Boca Juniors is once again forced to relocate its home games from the iconic La Bombonera stadium due to the deteriorating condition of its playing field. This marks the third time the club has had to move its home turf since the current management, led by Juan Román Riquelme, took charge.

The upcoming match against Estudiantes de La Plata, originally scheduled for the second round of the Clausura tournament, has been postponed and will now be played at the Tomás Adolfo Ducó stadium. This decision comes after Boca's commitment in Chile for the Copa Sudamericana. The move highlights a recurring challenge for the club: despite efforts to renovate the pitch, particularly after breaks, its quality consistently fails to meet standards.

Recent renovations included a complete reseeding and an upgrade of the drainage system in the area near the presidential boxes, a section historically affected by limited sunlight and the stadium's structural characteristics. These works, which took approximately 45 days, were intended to provide the pitch with the necessary time to recover and achieve excellence. However, the results have been unsatisfactory, as evidenced during Boca's recent Copa Sudamericana match against O'Higgins, where visible color differences across the pitch and uneven ball bounces were apparent.

The club's decision to move the venue is also influenced by a demanding schedule, with three matches planned in just six days, compounded by a forecast of rain that could further hinder pitch recovery. This situation, while causing inconvenience to socios who must now travel to a different stadium, underscores a persistent, long-standing issue with La Bombonera's playing surface that transcends different management eras.