Major change in Italian football: Serie A to introduce a new winter ball, set to get rid of the controversial yellow colour

Serie A is set to see a major change in design to its winter ball. (Image credits – Gemini)

Italian top-flight Serie A president Ezio Simonelli has announced that the controversial orange ball that was used in December will be replaced with a new look.

The Italian federation decided to shift from the traditional yellow-coloured winter ball to an orange-coloured one to ensure maximum visibility on the pitch even in adverse conditions, such as snow and heavy rain.

However, the Puma Orbita Hi-Vis, with its new orange shade, is impossible to see for the people suffering with colour blindness. This fact was not taken into consideration before, which has prompted the league officials to replace the new winter ball.

Simonelli has confirmed that the league will switch back to the traditional yellow winter ball or simply a white ball and has asked the manufacturer to speed up the process to implement this as soon as possible.

“We’ve received a lot of justified protests about this; there are some who can’t see it due to colour-blindness,” said Simonelli. (sic)

He further added, “We’ve asked our supplier to prepare a supply of new balls; they’ve put the new balls into production with a colour that is more visible, but it will take a little while before the orange one can be replaced. We will go back to yellow or white.”  (sic)

The orange winter ball has been used since Matchday 12 of the Serie A and was first used in Bologna’s 3-0 win against Udinese. The spectators with colour blindness protested against this ball over its visibility in large numbers, which forced the league to backtrack on its poorly executed decision.