David Martindale has revealed that Livingston were told they had to change the pitch at Almondvale or they would be denied promotion to the Premiership.
Some quarters criticised the West Lothian side’s playing surface when they were last in the top flight.
After spending a season in the Championship, they are now back among the country’s top teams following a play-off win over Ross County, but that would have been at risk if they couldn’t fund a new artificial pitch.
Martindale has backed the benefits of synthetic surfaces and urged the footballing authorities to reconsider a proposed top-flight ban that will come into force for the 2026/27 campaign.
The Livi boss said: “We kind of got told by the SPFL that if we were lucky enough to win promotion through the play-offs, that we would need to change our park.
“So, a lot of folk saying ‘your owners are putting money into a park that you might not be able to use in the following years’ but as the club we had a choice to make; to we find the money to put a park down so we can play in the Premiership, or say we won’t change our park and then not get promoted.
“That was where we are, so I think the pitch is still fluid regarding how it will go.
“We were told we had to put a new surface down, so we didn’t have a choice, in that respect. If we lost to Ross County in that last game, then I dare say we would still have the surface we had last year.
“That’s how it’s come about, we were told we had to change our surface, so the board had to be creative and find money to do that.
“I think there is a debate around how the vote (to ban artificial surfaces) came about. I personally don’t think it should be a Premiership vote; there are 42 clubs, so it should be a 42-club vote.
“You look at Falkirk, they haven’t been included in the vote, but two years later they find themselves in the Premiership, so how can you make it a Premiership vote?
“I’ll be interested in the narrative going forward this season. I think Falkirk’s is a really good surface and I enjoyed playing there last season, we’ve now got the newer version of their surface.
“It would be good to get feedback also, to see how they find playing on it. In my experience in the Premiership, during a three-month spell in the season, some of the parks are not great to play on, and I found that to be the case even more so in the Championship.
“So if you asked me if I would rather play on Falkirk’s surface over some of the surfaces we have played in over the years then I would take their surface all day long.
“We have the newer version of theirs at our ground this season, so hopefully the players coming along can enjoy playing on it.
“Hopefully, the bigger teams coming along to Livingston or Falkirk this season aren’t going to gripe too much about the surface.”
Livingston play their first competitive game of the season away to East Fife in the group stages of the League Cup on July 12.
They then get their Premiership campaign under way against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park on August 2.
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