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?

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?

I was at a snow game a year ago or so. Bochum vs. Berlin. It wasn't very pleasant for the players as far as I remember. But the orange coloured ball was a bit weird to look at as well.

Pretty much what Tennie said. The colder countries don't have a season during the winter months. The countries that do have a season over the winter either take a break, or don't have much snow at all. December-February is probably the busiest time in England for football, but we don't know what snow looks like.

One thing I do find weird about Earth is the weather. How can Birmingham be on the same line of lattitude as Edmonton and Moscow, further north than Kiev and the whole of the US yet we never, ever get snow. We've had 2 good snows days in the last decade. Crazy.

i'm no climatologist but i do know the sea tempers your weather quite a bit.

like i know for a fact Edmonton has very dry climate along with the rest of the prairies, and it's the same case with moscow and the majority of russia.

but ya edmonton is brutal, i have some friends that have lived there and its not uncommon for the temp to drop top -40 celcius

Now you've mentioned it, I think we do get something that comes from South East America to warm us up a bit. That probably explains it.


-40? That's crazy, I thought your eyes would freeze in that kind of weather!

i've been in it.. and it's crazy. your noses freezes shut when breath through it. it's not pleasant on the eyes but theres not enough moisture there to really freeze. but ya stay out for too long, or not properly dressed and you may experience that.

the gulf stream i believe.

Wow. The worst I experienced in Chicago it was an extremely rare -23 C one day last winter. It was actually colder than the North Pole that day! It was fun, but only because I knew it was a one/two day thing. I wore 2 pairs of socks, fleece pants underneath my work pants, three shirts and a coat, scarf, gloves and ski mask. Just to be outside for 5 minutes getting to and from my car...which actually started!

Thanks for the explanation...it would be fun to watch a match when it snows, hopefully we get one.

Also, @ Tennie for "pointy-ball football". That hit me just right.