[servbot]

Those of you who are fans of American football (NFL), are probably aware that come December and January (and this year even early October in Boston!) winter weather can have a huge impact on games played in many midwestern and northeastern US cities. Games being played in snow, wind, and cold, are always fun to watch as a fan, and certain games achieve legendary status (Ice Bowl, etc.). It is even sometimes seen as a badge of associating the weather/team play with the pride of fans who reference things like "the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field" or "Bear weather".

As European football is played through the winter months, I was wondering if this happens at all, and how it affects games, and if there's a sort of "prestige" about them. I recognize that the climate is more moderate in Europe for the most part, but I wonder if maybe in some inland or high-altitude cities it might be more possible? It has looked pretty cold in some of the recent Milan matches, but not quite freezing cold...perhaps in January? And if so, how does it impact the gameplay?

[Tennie]

It happens sometimes in European football but isn't nearly so common as it is in pointy-ball football (ie, no snow games like happen sometimes with the Packers or Vikings). The E Eur leagues (russia, ukraine, etc) and Scandinavian leagues (norway, sweden, etc) are on different schedules from Italy, England, Spain, etc: they play through the summer and end their league in oct/nov. Germany takes a longer winter break than other leagues.

As for Italy, it does get awfully cold and snowy at the northern stadiums (turin, milan, bergamo, udine). One of the Juve games last year was played in a snowstorm - pretty to watch but more the exception than the rule. I've been to games in Italy during the winter when the temperature hovers around freezing. I'm not sure if it appreciably affects gameplay all that much. The warm weather -- I've also been to games in Milan in late spring and early fall when it's been in the 90s and humid -- seems to have the much more apparent effect of slowing games down.

Anyone else?