Overview
- Helicopter landings during June's G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains damaged the local pitches Brighton planned to use, leaving surfaces the club judged to be a potential injury risk.
- Club staff discovered the problem when they arrived to set up the camp on Wednesday and trained at their Lancing ground on Friday before arranging to fly to an alternative base in Austria on Sunday.
- Brighton cancelled the scheduled friendly with Annecy and held an in-house match instead, while a friendly with Strasbourg is retained for August 1 but will be played at a different venue.
- The club says contingency plans were already in place and the changes have caused minimal disruption as Brighton keep later pre-season fixtures with Roma (August 8) and Bologna (August 15), the Conference League play-off first leg on August 20, and their Premier League opener on August 23.
- The episode highlights how using sports turf for helicopter landings can render pitches unsafe and raises a practical risk clubs must manage when planning overseas camps during high-profile events.