A quotation marked 4G invites a fair question: what exactly is the buyer paying for? The label promises a step beyond 3G, yet no governing body owns the term, and two suppliers rarely mean the same thing by it.
A 4G football pitch is a short-pile, densely tufted artificial turf system built to play without sand or rubber infill. We tuft artificial grass rolls on our own line, and generation labels arrive in enquiries every week. What follows covers the ladder behind the label, the trade-offs and the checks that matter before an artificial turf installation is signed off.
Why the 4G Label Causes Confusion
Third-generation systems sit inside an established testing framework, while 4G is a name that migrated from brochures into tender documents without a standard behind it. Two quotes marked 4G arrive, the carpets differ in pile, density and backing, and nobody can reconcile it from the label. Compare construction, not terminology.
What Defines a 4G Football Pitch
The working definition is consistent across the industry. A 4G football pitch uses short, dense synthetic grass, typically around 30 mm of pile, with no sand and no rubber performance infill. Stability comes from the carpet itself: high tuft density, resilient yarn geometry and a backing engineered to hold every fibre upright.
Most use polyethylene monofilament yarn, with pile weights that can reach around 3,000 g/m2. With no infill to prop the fibres, the carpet does that job itself, so density is the first spec line to read. Our sports artificial grass systems are tufted to a stated pile, density and backing spec, so the paper definition matches the roll that ships.
From 2G to 3G to 4G
Each generation answered a defect in the one before it. First-generation carpet arrived in the 1960s: short, dense nylon over a hard base, fast but unforgiving. Second-generation surfaces added sand infill and settled into hockey. Third-generation turf combined long polyethylene fibres, usually 40 to 60 mm, with sand and rubber crumb to reproduce the cushioning and ball behaviour of natural grass.
| Generation | Era | Typical pile | Infill | Ball behaviour | Usual role |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1G | 1960s | Short nylon weave | None | Fast, high bounce | Early all-weather surfaces |
| 2G | Sand-dressed era | Short | Sand | True low roll, hard underfoot | Hockey and multi-use courts |
| 3G | Current standard | 40 to 60 mm | Sand plus rubber crumb | Grass-like cushioned bounce | Football and rugby at all levels |
| 4G | Emerging | Around 30 mm | None | Quick roll, higher bounce | Training, community and indoor play |
The table shows why the debate is really about infill: every generation before 4G filled the space between the fibres with loose material, and 4G removes it. Pitches tested under international football-turf programmes earn quality marks, and that testing framework covers infilled systems. No equivalent dedicated category exists for unfilled 4G surfaces, a fact to hold onto when a 4G football pitch quotation leans on the label.
How Unfilled Short Pile Technology Works
Density does the work that infill used to do. In a filled system, sand and rubber prop the fibres upright and absorb impact. In an unfilled one, the yarn supports itself through its shape, its resilience and the closeness of its tufting. Curled yarn mixes tufted between the straight monofilaments help the carpet recover after each session.