* YOU BEEN SANP * SPORT NEWS" The Wembley pitch? Glastonbury? No, simply football's muckiest match"

*MKILETEWA HAPA NA FLORA LYIMO DESIGNER*

They say that football pitches have improved no end in recent years, but it would seem the advances in technology haven't reached this playing surface in Hyrynsalmi, Finland.

In the groundsman's defence, he has been tasked with making a quagmire of a pitch that even makes new Wembley stadium's first pitches look like a picture-perfect carpet of grass.

Foul play: The players do their best to keep the ball in sight as it sinks into the mud'

 

Credit to these hardy souls attempting to play a game of Association Football in fields resembling a Sunday evening at Glastonbury following an apocalyptic deluge.
The action unfolding is at the Swamp Soccer Championships 2011 in Finland during which 1,200 swamp soccer players in 117 teams competed in the two-day event.
What do you mean you've never heard of it?
The rules of the event are vague and a mish-mash of various sports including football and rugby, teams comprise a goalkeeper and five other players and there is no limit on the number of substitutions, but each team must have at least four players on the pitch.

Mud pie: Silky skills are out of the question, remaining upright a struggle'

 

And the games, played on 60metre x 30metre pitches are comprised of two ten minute halves.

News of the new world champions is yet to be released. But who cares? When the conditions are like this, the taking part really is what counts.

Girls allowed: There's no segregation between the sexes, everyone's welcome to come and wallow in the mud;