- Football (association football)
-
In association football, the football (or soccer ball, according to whether the game is referred to as "football" or "soccer") used in official matches is a specific type of football standardised for size, weight, and material and manufactured to the specifications of the Laws of the Game, specifically Law 2.
Early footballs began as animal bladders that would easily fall apart if kicked too much. As time went on footballs developed to what they look like today. This was possible with the help of people like Charles Goodyear and Domenico Nobili, who introduced rubber and their discoveries of vulcanization to the design of footballs. Today, technological research is ongoing to develop footballs with improved performance.
Contents
History
Leather ball used in the football tournament at the 1936 Summer Olympics.
In 1863, the first specification for footballs were laid down by the Football Association. Previous to this, footballs were made out of inflated leather, with later leather coverings to help footballs maintain their shapes.[1] In 1872 the specifications were revised, and these rules have been left essentially unchanged as defined by the International Football Association Board. Differences in footballs created since this rule came into effect has been to do with the material used in their creation.
Footballs have gone through a dramatic change over time. During medieval times balls were normally made from an outer shell of leather filled with cork shavings.[2] Another method of creating a ball was using animal bladders for the inside of the ball making it inflatable. However, these two styles of creating footballs made it easy for the ball to puncture and were inadequate for kicking. It was not until the 19th century that footballs developed into what a football looks like today.
Vulcanization
In 1838, Charles Goodyear and Domenico Nobili introduced the use of rubber and their discoveries of Vulcanization, which dramatically improved the football.[3] Vulcanization is the treatment of rubber to give it certain qualities such as strength, elasticity, and resistance to solvents. Vulcanization of rubber also helps the football resist moderate heat and cold. Vulcanization helped create inflatable bladders that pressurize the outer panel arrangement of the football. Charles Goodyear's innovation increased the bounce ability of the ball and made it easier to kick. Most of the balls of this time had tanned leather with eighteen sections stitched together. These were arranged in six panels of three strips each.[4]
Reasons for improvement
During the 1900s footballs were made out of rubber and leather which was perfect for bouncing and kicking the ball, however when heading the football (hitting it with the player's head) it was usually painful. This problem was most likely due to water absorption of the leather from rain, which caused a considerable increase in weight, causing head or neck injury. Another problem of early footballs was that they deteriorated quickly, as the leather used in manufacturing the footballs varied in thickness and in quality.[4]
Present developments
Elements of the football that today are tested are the deformation of the football when it is kicked or when the ball hits a surface. Two styles of footballs have been tested by the Sports Technology Research Group of Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering in Loughborough University; these two models are called the Basic FE model and the Developed FE model of the football. The basic model considered the ball as being a spherical shell with isotropic material properties. The developed model also utilized isotropic material properties but included an additional stiffer stitching seam region.
Future developments
Companies such as Mitre, Adidas, Nike and Puma are releasing footballs made out of new materials which promise more accurate flight and more power to be transferred to the football.[5]
Construction
Today’s footballs are more complex than past footballs. Most modern footballs consist of twelve regular pentagonal and twenty regular hexagonal panels positioned in a truncated icosahedron spherical geometry.[2] The inside of the football is made up of a latex bladder which enables the football to be pressurized. The ball’s panel pairs are stitched along the edge; this procedure can either be performed manually or with a machine.[3]
Suppliers
Many companies throughout the world produce footballs. 40% of all footballs are made in Sialkot, Pakistan.[6]
However Adidas has supplied match balls for all official FIFA and UEFA matches since the 1970s, and also supplied match balls for the 2008 Olympic Games.[7] They also supply the ball for the UEFA Champions League which is called the Adidas Finale.
FIFA World Cup
The following footballs were used in the FIFA World Cup finals tournaments:
World Cup Ball(s) Image Manufacturer Additional information Refs 1930 Two different balls were used in the final: Argentina supplied the first-half ball and led 2–1 at the break; hosts Uruguay supplied the second-half ball and won 4–2. [8] 1934 Federale 102 ECAS (Ente Centrale Approvvigionamento Sportivi), Rome [9] 1938 Allen, Paris [10] 1950 Duplo T Superball [11] 1954 Swiss World Champion Kost Sport, Basel The first 18-panel ball. [12][8] 1958 Top Star Sydsvenska Läder och Remfabriken, Ängelholm (aka "Remmen" or "Sydläder") Chosen from 102 candidates in a blind test by four FIFA officials. [13][14] 1962 Santiago
Top Star
CrackAdidas
Remmen
Custodio Zamora H., San Miguel, ChileThree different balls were used. Referee Ken Aston was unimpressed with the Chilean ball provided for the opening match, and sent for a European ball, which arrived in the second half. Most later matches used European balls. [13][15][8] 1966 Challenge 4-star Slazenger 18-panel ball in orange or yellow. Selected in a blind test at the Football Association headquarters in Soho Square. [8][16] 1970 Telstar 
Adidas Telstar was the first 32-panel black-and-white ball used in the FIFA World Cup finals. Only 20 were supplied by adidas. A brown ball was used in some matches. [8][17] 1974 Telstar Durlast 
Adidas [8] 1978 Tango 
Adidas [8] 1982 Tango España 
Adidas [8] 1986 Azteca 
Adidas First fully synthetic FIFA World Cup ball and first hand-sewed ball [8] 1990 Etrusco Unico 
Adidas [8] 1994 Questra [18] 
Adidas [8] 1998 Tricolore 
Adidas First multi-coloured ball at a World Cup finals tournament [8] 2002 Fevernova 
Adidas [8] 2006 Teamgeist 
Adidas The Teamgeist is a 14 panel ball. Each match at the World Cup finals had its own individual ball, printed with the date of the match, the stadium and the team names.[7] It was replaced for the final match by the gold-coloured Teamgeist Berlin. [8] 2010 Jabulani [File: adidas-jabulani-photo] Adidas This ball has 8 panels. The ball for the final match was the gold Jo'bulani (named for Jo'burg, venue for the match. [8][19] European Football Championship
The following balls were used in the UEFA European Football Championship over the years:[20]
Championship Official football Manufacturer Additional information 1972 Telstar Adidas 1976 Telstar Adidas 1980 Tango Italia Adidas 1984 Tango Mundial Adidas 1988 Tango Europa Adidas 1992 Etrusco Unico Adidas This was the same ball used as in the 1990 FIFA World Cup. 1996 Questra Europa Adidas 2000 Terrestra Silverstream Adidas 2004 Roteiro Adidas 2008 Europass Adidas 2012 Adidas League balls
The following balls were used in the UEFA, AFC, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, OFC, CAF balls over the years:
1. League Ball League Name Nike Seitiro 
Premier LeagueNike Seitiro 
La LigaAdidas Torfabrik 
BundesligaNike 
Campeonato Brasileiro Série ANike Seitiro 
Serie APuma 
Ligue 1Adidas Jabulani 
Argentine Primera DivisiónAdidas Jabulani 
Russian Premier LeagueAdidas Jabulani 
Liga SagresNike 
Süper LigNike 
Super League GreeceNike 
Liga IMitre REVOLVE FL 
Scottish Premier LeagueAdidas Jabulani 
J. League Division 1Nike 
K-LeaguePuma 
Bulgarian A PFGPuma 
EkstraklasaAdidas Jabulani 
/
Major League SoccerNike 
Chinese Super LeagueNike 
A-LeagueNike 
I-LeagueMitre REVOLVE FL 
Welsh Premier LeagueUmbro NeoPro 
Peruvian Primera DivisiónUnicode
Unicode 5.2 introduces the glyph ⚽ (U+26BD SOCCER BALL), representable in HTML as
⚽or⚽.[21] The addition of this symbol follows a 2008 proposal by Karl Pentzlin.[22]References
- ^ football World - Early History (Accessed June 9, 2006)
- ^ a b Price, D. S., Jones, R.Harland, A. R. 2006. Computational modeling of manually stitched footballs. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers -- Part L — Journal of Materials: Design & Applications. Vol. 220 Issue 4, p259-268.
- ^ a b Materials Science and Engineering: A Volume 420, Issues 1-2, 25 March 2006, Pages 100-108
- ^ a b Viscoelasticity of multi-layer textile reinforced polymer composites used in footballs. Journal of Materials Science. Volume 43, Number 8 / April, 2008. 2833-2843.
- ^ football World - 2000 and Beyond (Accessed June 9, 2006)
- ^ "Adidas - All posts tagged Adidas". The Wall Street Journal. http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/tag/adidas/.
- ^ a b football World - Team Geist (Accessed June 9, 2006)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "The Footballs during the FIFA World Cup". Football Facts. FIFA. http://footballs.fifa.com/Football-Facts/FIFA-World-Cup-Footballs. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
- ^ Matteo, Renato. ""Federale 102". 1934 Italia World Cup Ball" (in Spanish). balones-oficiales.com. http://www.balones-oficiales.com/1934.htm. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
- ^ ""Allen". 1938 France World Cup Ball" (in Spanish and English). balones-oficiales.com. http://www.balones-oficiales.com/1938.htm. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
- ^ ""Super Duplo T". 1950 Brazil World Cup Official Matchball" (in Spanish and English). balones-oficiales.com. http://www.balones-oficiales.com/duplo50.htm. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
- ^ "1954 Switzerland World Cup Official Matchball" (in Spanish and English). balones-oficiales.com. http://www.balones-oficiales.com/suiza1954.htm. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
- ^ a b Norlin, Arne (2008). "Bollen "Made in Sweden"" (in Swedish). 1958: När Folkhemmet Fick Fotbolls-VM. Malmo: Ross & Tegner. pp. 130–6. ISBN 9789197614481.
- ^ "Top Star 1958" (in Spanish and English). balones-oficiales.com. http://www.balones-oficiales.com/mundial1958.htm. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
- ^ Matteo, Renato (11 June 2010). ""Crack". 1962 Chile World Cup Official Matchball". balones-oficiales.com. http://www.balones-oficiales.com/crack1962.htm. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
- ^ Matteo, Renato (11 June 2010). ""Slazenger Challenge 4-star". 1966 England World Cup Official Matchball". balones-oficiales.com. http://www.balones-oficiales.com/challenge.htm. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
- ^ Brown balls are visible in Getty Images photos of matches in the Estadio Nou Camp, Léon:
- ^ football World - Adidas Questra (Accessed June 9, 2006)
- ^ "The adidas JO'BULANI - Official Match Ball for the final of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa". FIFA. http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/photogallery/gallery=1196526.html. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
- ^ football World - European Football Championship balls(Accessed June 9, 2006)
- ^ "Miscellaneous Symbols Range: 2600–26FF" (PDF). Unicode Consortium. 2009. http://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2600.pdf. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ Pentzlin, Karl (2 April 2008). "Proposal to encode a SOCCER BALL symbol in Unicode" (PDF). http://www.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3514.pdf. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
External links
- Oh My News! - History of World Cup footballs
- Adidas - The History of FIFA World Cup Match Balls
- History of world cup Winners
- New York Times interactive feature on the evolution of the world cup ball
Laws of the Game - Rules of Association football Terms Law 1: The Field of Play · Law 2: The Ball · Law 3: The Number of Players · Law 4: The Players' Equipment · Law 5: The Referee · Law 6: The Assistant Referees · Law 7: The Duration of the Match · Law 8: The Start and Restart of Play · Law 9: The Ball In and Out of Play · Law 10: The Method of Scoring · Law 11: Offside · Law 12: Fouls and Misconduct · Law 13: Free kicks (direct and indirect) · Law 14: The Penalty Kick · Law 15: The Throw-In · Law 16: The Goal Kick · Law 17: Corner kickInternational Football
Association Board (IFAB)Categories:- Association football equipment
- Balls
- Laws of association football
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
