Core77

Soccer ball's design influenced by manufacturing techniques, television sets, FIFA politics, and the quest for roundness

By Rain Noe - June 14, 2010

in Object Culture

The plight of the soccer ball will be familiar to product designers and consumers alike: Here you have this object that seemed to work fine, but now it keeps relentlessly evolving into new forms even though you may have been completely happy with the one you grew up with.

So why muck with a good thing? Core77 decided to take a look, from a design perspective, at some of the changes undergone by the ball in the last 30-some years. Here's what we found:

The Slazenger Special Edition, 1966 World Cup

This is the stitched leather ball used in the 1966 World Cup, designed by British manufacturer Slazenger. It is often referred to as having 18 panels, but in some photographs it appears to have 24 or more. But whether it's 18 or 24, the question is: Why so many panels?

Well, from a manufacturing perspective, if you have something flat (like a piece of leather) that needs to assume a spherical shape, it will begin to stretch in some places and wrinkle in others as you shape it, creating inconsistency; so the more small pieces you break it into, the less warpage you have in the end product. As for that bland color, it was simply the natural color of the leather. Not very telegenic.

The Telstar (Television Star), 1970 World Cup

As matches increasingly became televised, the telegenic problem was solved in 1970 by Adidas with the advent of the high-contrast black and white design.

This was chosen specifically so spectators watching black-and-white televisions could clearly see the ball, with the black accents on a white background revealing the ball's direction of spin. The pentagons-on-hexagons pattern of 32 panels, called an icosahedron by math geeks, would remain part of the design for many years. Adidas would remain the official World Cup ball manufacturer to the present day.

The Azteca Mexico, 1986 World Cup

It wasn't until 1986 that leather was finally swapped out for a synthetic material, to prevent water absorption. Water could still theoretically enter the ball through the stitching, but the synthetic outer material would not absorb water the way that leather would.

The Questra, 1994 World Cup

The Questra's story is perhaps the most fascinating.

The World Cup of 1990 was considered by many to be a drab affair featuring teams with belligerently defensive mentalities and, as a result, very few goals scored. Spectators were bored.

Worringly for FIFA, the '94 World Cup was scheduled to be held in soccer-unfriendly America, where sports fans were used to relatively high-scoring games like basketball and American football. FIFA, worried the event would be a failure and a huge loss of ad revenue if viewers failed to tune in, asked Adidas to inject some excitement into the sport of soccer by redesigning the ball. The idea was that if more goals were scored, and spectacular ones at that, Americans would talk the games up.

Adidas responded by adding an unspecified blend of five materials and a polystyrene foam shell, making for a lighter, softer, and more responsive ball. Players had better control and could kick the ball farther and harder. Spectacular goals did result and, predictably, goaltenders hated the thing.

The Teamgeist, 2006 World Cup

By 2006 it seemed as if the ball had been designed by Karim Rashid.

The 32-panel icosahedron was replaced with just 14 curved panels of Rashid-esque shapes, bonded together rather than sewn; the new watertight bonds admitted no water to the inside, so the performance of the ball did not change in the rain. And because the panels were curved before being bonded together, as opposed to flat material stretched into the shape of a sphere, the designers claimed it was the roundest soccer ball ever.

Interestingly, the ball was originally designed to include some type of transmitter for an electronic tracking system, but this proved unworkable in trials and was scrapped.

So, that brings us to the current ball, the much-maligned Jabulani. Stay tuned, as this will require its own entry.

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MoreCowBell

10 years ago

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If a soccerball had dimples like a golf ball, would it fly further?
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mazin

14 years ago

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im intersted in ball design so i made new ball which have only 18 panels with defrent shap never been used before .( x ball) i named it . so im looking for big company to make this new ball seen and used in the competition. does any one can give me advice how to do this? do i have to pattend it first or no need for this step?
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Mart

14 years ago

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as a soccer lover I detest these new, perfectly round balls. It's a case of designers being designers again. Any projectile needs grooving and/or texture in order to perform with accuracy. (either that or as in a bullet or shell the delivery system needs to place incredible spin on it via rifling in the barrel to help it fly predictably). The designers should instead come up with a way to groove soccer balls. The ball at this current 2010 WC is behaving terribly. Unpredictable flight and the thing is way too light.
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edgar d. acevedo

14 years ago

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This is an interesting, yet very brief chronology of the evolution of the soccer ball. Consider that the 1st ball design used in a World Cup was introduced in 1930. That ball was called the Tiento. The Slazenger Special Edition is only the last generation of that original leather concept.

Can't wait for your article on the Jabulani!
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ursus

14 years ago

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... called a truncated icosahedron by math geeks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truncated_icosahedron
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Chris

14 years ago

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Check on footballs.FIFA.com for quality approved football quality from FIFA. All these balls need to pass several quality tests to be approved as match balls. I think the tests carried on are somehow important and show that there is an interest on developing equipment from the source.
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Shirty Tailor

14 years ago

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Thank you... this is by far the most interesting aspect of the world cup as far as I'm concerned!
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