There are many problems on the pitch that Dutch football will have to face as it prepares to sit out a World Cup finals this summer, but one that goes beyond even the performance of its national team is the persistent fear of a link between rubber crumb on artificial 3G pitches and cancer.

The England squad will arrive in Holland on Thursday in the same week as local elections there, in which many candidates are standing on manifestos that include, prominently, an opposition to rubber crumb, the black pellets found all over 3G artificial pitches. They are, as many parents and footballers in Holland now know, part of the 20,000 shredded tyres that go on to a modern 3G football pitch to help the...