Caley Thistle manager Duncan Ferguson believes grass pitches should be made compulsory at Championship level.
Ferguson has been in charge at Caledonian Stadium since September, having served as a player, coach and manager in English football for nearly 30 years.
The return to Scotland has exposed Ferguson to artificial pitches, which are used throughout all four SPFL divisions.
Championship clubs Raith Rovers and Airdrie currently use artificial surfaces.
There have been widespread calls for synthetic surfaces to be banned in the Premiership, where Kilmarnock and Livingston operate them.
Ferguson insists he would go a step further by making grass pitches a condition for playing in the second-tier.
Ferguson said: “I don’t think football should be played on a plastic pitch. It gives you so much of an advantage.
“If you’re playing on a plastic pitch every single day, and then in the game on a Saturday, that gives you an unbelievable advantage on the opposition.
“And you have injuries from it that concern me.
“I get the financial part of it, but in a division like the Scottish Premiership and the Championship, it should be a grass pitch.
“Football’s played on grass, isn’t it? That’s the way it should be.
“It is too much of an advantage for the team that owns the plastic pitch.”
Airdrie’s advantage showed against Inverness
Ferguson felt Inverness’ players were not at ease with the artificial surface at Excelsior Stadium when Airdrie ran out 2-0 winners against his side earlier this month.
He added: “I noticed it against Airdrie. It is an unbelievable advantage, and that’s not taking anything away from anybody else.
“You’re playing on a different surface, aren’t you? How much of an advantage it is, I don’t know, but it has to be. I saw against Airdrie our players really struggling with the speed of the pitch.
“It was wet and the ball was flying.
“If you’re not playing on that or training on that regularly, and come across it maybe once or twice in the whole season, it has got to be a disadvantage. How can it not be?
“And of course the team that has the plastic pitch is playing on grass every other week as well, so they are used to using both.
“I would prefer football on grass, especially in the top league in Scotland.”
Ferguson a strong advocate of playing on grass
Stirling-born Ferguson, who made the breakthrough with Dundee United in the early 1990s, reflects fondly on his experiences of playing on grass pitches throughout his entire playing career.
Ferguson added: “I get it if you’re in Siberia or wherever else – maybe because of the weather.
“But you want to smell the grass and the mud.
“Look at the old tapes from back in the day when you see the pitches they played on, it was great.
“The pitches are out of this world in England, but you don’t see any mud.
“We used to play on red ash when we were kids – I’ve still got cuts all the way down the side of my legs – and we shouldn’t go back to that.
“I like the smell of the grass, not the plastic pitch.”
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