The white lines on the green grass on the soccer pitch give the players and officiating crew important information: the penalty area, where the goalkeeper can touch the ball, etc. When it’s snowing, however, the white lines fade into the color of the white snow. It seems to be that FIFA’s solution is to plow the lines, but that seems a temporary solution at best in really REALLY bad snow.
I saw a clip from a recent MLS game where they switched to an orange ball and plowed the lines, but while I see the sense in the orange ball, plowing the lines is like putting a Band-Aid (a plaster, for my British friends) on a gushing wound.
Is the officiating crew expected to just use their best judgment when the lines are covered?
Of course. What else can they do?
I don’t know about the MLS, but in the Bundesliga every field has to have a heating system that melts smallish amounts of snow. If there’s too much snow for that heating to handle it, the game will be cancelled. I remember games from the 70s/80s when that still wasn’t the case, in heavy snow when the lines were plowed and an orange ball was used, but most of these games were actually irregular and there was no real football possible, but they were played nonetheless. Horrible. Sometimes, heavy rain can pose similar problems, like in the infamous 1974 WC semi-final Germany-Poland (1-0), “die Wasserschlacht von Frankfurt” (the Water Battle of Frankfurt). The Poles are still upset.
The Water Battle.