Turkey’s top football club has moved to a state-of-the-art stadium equipped with a pitch developed in west Cumbria.

Turkish champions Besiktas turned to SIS Pitches of Maryport to provide the pitch at their new 42,000-seater Vodafone Arena in Istanbul, which was completed in April.

The firm's SISGrass technology was first used in Turkey to reconstruct the Arena’s 10,000sq metre training pitch between June and September last year before the 7,848sq metre match pitch, and synthetic installation around the pitch perimeter, were put in place.

Ilyas Kobal, SIS's eastern European managing director, said: "SISGrass is perfect for a team like Besiktas to play their fast, skilful game.

"The ball moves quickly and the bounce is even. "The players got out on the new training pitch and couldn’t believe it had only been installed three weeks earlier.

“They said it looked like a carpet but played like perfect grass. The club has three pitches at its training ground, but already they are refusing to play on the others and want to train on the SISGrass.”

The hybrid grass-synthetic surface has already won the inaugural Sports and Play Construction Association award of excellence.

It combines natural and synthetic grass to create a more durable playing surface for football and rugby.

SISGrass involves stitching a natural turf pitch using a patented injector vehicle that embeds up to 150 miles of custom yarn into the ground, to bind with the grass.

The resulting surface retains the playing characteristics of natural turf but is capable of withstanding heavier use, yet with reduced maintenance.

Mr Kobal added: “We know other top clubs in Turkey are looking enviously at this pitch. There has been a lot of interest.”

The company employs up to 40 people at Glasson Industrial Estate. Synthetic pitches are made there while it also supplies grass pitches using turf grown in Europe and the United Arab Emirates.

The 2018 World Cup final will be played on pitch designed and laid by the company at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium. It will be the first time a World Cup final has been played on a hybrid pitch.