 To help the stadium cope with the cold Russian winters, the grass pitch was replaced by an artificial FieldTurf surface in 2002.Although UEFA allowed matches in earlier rounds and European Championship qualifying to be played on the synthetic surface, they mandated that the Champions League Final should be played on natural grass.Turf was shipped in from Slovakia especially for the final at a cost of £160,000, and laid on top of the existing playing surface, resulting in the pitch being higher than normal.