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Ball (association football) facts for kids

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Football Pallo valmiina-cropped
Adidas Telstar-style ball, with the familiar black and white spherical truncated icosahedron pattern, introduced in 1970

A football, soccer ball, football ball, or association football ball is the ball used in the sport of association football. The name of the ball varies according to whether the sport is called "football", "soccer", or "association football". The ball's spherical shape, as well as its size, weight, and material composition, are specified by Law 2 of the Laws of the Game maintained by the International Football Association Board. Additional, more stringent standards are specified by FIFA and subordinate governing bodies for the balls used in the competitions they sanction.

Early footballs began as animal bladders or stomachs that would easily fall apart if kicked too much. Improvements became possible in the 19th century with the introduction of rubber and discoveries of vulcanization by Charles Goodyear. The modern 32-panel ball design was developed in 1962 by Eigil Nielsen, and technological research continues today to develop footballs with improved performance. The 32-panel ball design was soon overcome by 24-panel balls as well as 42-panel balls, both of which improved performance compared to before, in 2007.

A black-and-white patterned spherical truncated icosahedron design, brought to prominence by the Adidas Telstar, has become an icon of the sport. Many different designs of balls exist, varying both in appearance and physical characteristics.

Specification

Construction

Today's footballs are much 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. Some premium-grade 32-panel balls use non-regular polygons to give a closer approximation to sphericality. The inside of the football is made up of a latex or butyl rubber bladder which enables the football to be pressurised. The ball's outside is made of leather, synthetic leather, polyurethane or PVC panels. The surface can be textured, weaved or embossed for greater control and touch. The panel pairs are either machine-stitched, hand-stitched or thermo-bonded (glued and bonded by heat) along the edge. To prevent water absorption balls may be specially coated, or the stitches bonded with glue. The size of a football is roughly 22 cm (8.66 inches) in diameter for a regulation size 5 ball. Rules state that a size 5 ball must be 68 to 70 cm (27 to 28 in) in circumference. Averaging that to 69 cm (27 in) and then dividing by π gives about 22 cm (8.7 in) for a diameter.

Size and weight

Regulation size and weight for a soccer ball is a circumference of 68–70 cm (27–28 in) and a weight of between 410–450 g (14–16 oz). The ball should be inflated to a pressure of 0.6 and 1.1 bars (8.7 and 16.0 psi) at sea level. This is known as "Size 5". Smaller balls, sizes 1, 3 and 4 are also produced. These are designed for younger players or as training tools.

Types of ball

There are a number of different types of football balls depending on the match and turf including training footballs, match footballs, professional match footballs, beach footballs, street footballs, indoor footballs, turf balls, futsal footballs and mini/skills footballs.

Adidas MLS Tango 12 soccer ball
A professional/premium match soccer ball.
  • Professional/Premium Match Soccer Balls are developed with top professional clubs to maximize players natural abilities and skills. They are FIFA-approved for use at the highest professional and international levels and designed for performance, exact specifications, great accuracy, speed and control. Air retention, water-resistance, and performance are far superior when compared to a training ball. Intended for all natural and artificial turf surfaces and all climates. These are the most expensive soccer balls.
  • Matchday Soccer Balls are high performance range of balls for all playing surfaces. The outer casing is either leather or an approved synthetic and it will typically be water-resistant as well. They are guaranteed to conform to official size, weight, and texture regulations, designed to suit all levels of play and all age groups. These balls cost more than turf or training balls, which is offset by their superior level of quality.
  • Recreational/Practice/Training Soccer Balls are tough and highly durable balls for extended use. Made of robust materials for use on all playing surfaces and used by players at any level. Practice balls are the least expensive balls when compared with match type soccer balls.
  • Turf Balls are specifically designed to work on artificial surfaces that mimic grass. They are durable and reasonably affordable, but tend to skip more when used on a natural pitch.
  • Promotional Balls are usually made to promote a name brand, organization or event.
  • Indoor Soccer Balls come in the same sizes as the outdoor soccer balls, but are designed to have less bounce and rebound in them, making it possible to control the ball on a smaller court or indoor arena. The cover of an indoor ball is also the strongest of any category, so it can withstand the hard rebound impact on the court flooring and wall surfaces.
  • Futsal Soccer Balls differ from typical soccer balls in that the bladder is filled with foam. That makes the ball heavier and with less bounce for use on the hard futsal playing surface. Besides that, a futsal soccer ball is smaller in size than a football used in the soccer field.

Suppliers

See also: List of FIFA World Cup official match balls, List of UEFA European Championship official match balls, List of AFC Asian Cup official match balls, and List of Olympic Football official match balls

Many companies throughout the world produce footballs. The earliest balls were made by local suppliers where the game was played. It is estimated that 55% of all footballs are made in Sialkot, Pakistan, with other major producers being China and India.

As a response to the problems with the balls in the 1962 FIFA World Cup, Adidas created the Adidas Santiago – this led to Adidas winning the contract to supply the match balls for all official FIFA and UEFA matches, which they have held since the 1970s, and also for the Olympic Games. They also supply the ball for the UEFA Champions League which is called the Adidas Finale.

FIFA World Cup

Main page: FIFA World Cup official match balls

In early FIFA World Cups, match balls were mostly provided by the hosts from local suppliers. Records indicate a variety of models being used within individual tournaments and even, on some occasions, individual games. Over time, FIFA took more control over the choice of ball used. Since 1970 Adidas have supplied official match balls for every tournament.

League balls

The following lists the most up-to-date balls used in various club football competitions (as of 2020-21 season):

Unicode

The association football symbol (Error using : Input "26BD" is not a hexadecimal value.) was introduced by computing standard Unicode. The symbol was representable in HTML as ⚽ or ⚽. The addition of this symbol follows a 2008 proposal by Karl Pentzlin.

Images for kids

  • 1930 World Cup Final Ball Uruguay

    Early football ball (with its leather lace) used in the 1930 FIFA World Cup Final

  • Fussball 1936

    Leather ball used in the football tournament at the 1936 Summer Olympics

  • Torfabrik 02

    Adidas Torfabrik football used in the Bundesliga in 2011

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Balón de fútbol para niños

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