You get real!
We are talking about a top level professional sports club playing in the top division! Not a local park team.
With away fans & clubs spending thousands to get there.
So yes I do expect them to be able cover a pitch from frost & ice at the very least.

I don't know where St Esteve/XIII Catalan play but it's prefectly conceivable that one field may have been frozen while another might not have been. Tomorrow's Northern Rail Cup match at Hunslet is called off, as far as I know all other RL matches in West Yorkshire are taking place. The fact that Perpignan is in France doesn't mean that the physical process of a pitch freezing is any different, nor does it mean that they should somehow have been better prepared to deal with a week of sub-zero temperatures than clubs in England are. Some of the conspiracy theories on this thread are hilarious. If a pitch is frozen, it's frozen. It's better for the game to be called off than for the players to go out and potentially suffer severe injuries.

How the hell would they know that almost a week before

In 2003 Newcastle United travelled to Barcelona for a champions league group stage game. About 5 hours before kick off there was a down pour of biblical proportions and the game had to be called off, meaning many of the Newcastle fans who had travelled just for the game and were on flights back the following day had a wasted journey.

You know, sometimes, happens. As has already been stated, flights and hotels are a sunk cost. Covering the pitch would not have make a jot of difference.

Might be wrong, but a cursory check on Google suggest it's 2.5 miles away from the Stade Aime Girale.

The whole of Europe was forewarned of this weather 2 weeks ago, the high pressure system over Russia named the 'beast from the east' would bring sub zero temperatures to the whole of Europe.
This weather system is a 'freak' as it has caused havoc to all European tidal systems causing them to fall short of their predicted hieghts by as much as 1.4 metres on every tide for the past 2 weeks.
This has been more than enough time for any sporting clubs administraion to put into place the most basic of ground protection to give the game a chance of being played.
Trent Robinson said on Sky last night that they have been unable to train on the pitch for 1 month.
For the club to use water in whatever way on the pitch in the prevailing weather is absolute stupidity/ignorant. Typical French attitude...............it doesn't matter unless it suits them.

It is adverse weather ..............but it's been adverse for 1 month, they should have had protection on it, simple as.

Just a stab in the dark, but most likely by taking into account the condition of the pitch on Tuesday, the available technology, and the weather forecast. It's not actually rocket science.

Ah great, another know-nowt numptie joins the discussion.

I once refereed a Friday night game at Fartown. I arrived at 6.30pm, an hour before the scheduled kick-off time and immediately put my boots on and the two TJs and I walked every square metre of the pitch. I never used Phil Clarke's "trusty stick a key in the ground" method because I don't know of many boots with key blades for cleats. We and both clubs' coaches decided the match would go ahead: the pitch was flat with no divots and was easily taking a stud. At kick off and throughout the first half, there were no problems at all. Five minutes into the second half I heard the Batley winger running down the touchline, the noise resembled a carthorse on a cobbled street. As soon as he'd been tackled I stopped the game and did another mini-pitch inspection. Frost had started to creep from touch, into the field of play. By the time I'd stopped the game, the ground was solid for two metres in from touch.

I called the game off immediately and although the players and staff were disappointed at not being able to see the match to conclusion, they all understood that it would be too dangerous to continue.

If Catalans had covered the pitch and kept hot air blowers going through the night, there's still no guarantee the game would have gone ahead.

Sh[ii[/it happens, get used to it. Sometimes there really is nobody to blame.

Told by whom?

Only sensible sentence on the thread...

A Catalan fan.

No matter which way you look at this it [iappears[/i that not every effort was made to give the game the best possible chance of going ahead. It also seems telling that a nearby pitch was in good enough condition to stage a game this evening. I'm not suggesting any kind of conspiracy, but incompetence does seem to have played a large part here.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane it was lovely.
That's the point though isn't it, they didn't try & prevent it did they numpty.
If they had tried & failed I suspect there wouldn't be all this debate!