History Of Official FIFA WORLD CUP Match balls

History Of Official FIFA WORLD CUP Match balls

Do you know that in every FIFA world cup a different ball is used and every ball has some interesting trivia closely associated with it?

Here we go:-

1930 FIFA World Cup

T-Model: The ball had a t-shaped panels,that’s why got its name T-Model. In the world cup finals Argentina chose the Tiento for the first half, while Uruguay chose the T-model in the second half. It was an all leather ball.

1934 FIFA World Cup

Federale 102: Italy dictator Benito Mussolini wanted the ball to be made in host nation Italy. So the ball was made in Italy as the leather laces were replaced with the cotton ones.

1938 FIFA World Cup

Allen: This was the first time a company’s brand was used to name the ball. A paris based manufacturer Allen designed the ball and so the ball got its name.

1950 FIFA World Cup

Duplo T: It was a first time that a FIFA ball could be inflated with a pump and a needle as laces were removed and valves were introduced.

1954 FIFA World Cup

Swiss World Champion: A 18-panel structure with panels interlocking in a zig-zag pattern was chosen and the design stayed on for the years to come.

1958 FIFA World Cup

Top Star: Fifa came up with an innovative idea of floating a competition among the manufacturers of the ball. 102 applied in the competition and a company in sweden was picked up to maufacture the ball.

1962 FIFA World Cup

Crack: Irregular division of panels made this ball quite unpopular among European players as the players thought that ball was manufactured in Chile.

1966 FIFA World Cup

Challenge 4-Star: A blind test was conducted by FIFA and a british company Slazenger was picked up to manufacture the ball. The ball had 25 panels.

1970 FIFA World Cup

Telstar: A revolutionary 32 panel black and white design was introduced by Adidas for the first time and the visibility of the ball was improved on Television because of it.

1974 FIFA World Cup

Telstar Durlast: It was a more or less of a same design as it was in 1970 as a polyurethane coating was used to waterproof the ball.

1978 FIFA World Cup

Tango: Black panels gave way for an all white base as Tango the best known dance form of Argentina was chosen.

1982 FIFA World Cup

Tango Espana: It was the last leather ball to be used in a world cup with improvements in the water resistance and durability of the ball. The design remained same as of 1978.

1986 FIFA World Cup

Azteca: It was a first fully synthetic ball to be used in the history of the world cup as the ball was able to retain its shape after being kicked.

1990 FIFA World Cup

Etrusco Unico: Etruscans an ancient civilization in Italy was honored as the ball was named Etrusco Unico. Etruscan Lions also made their way into the design because of this.

1994 FIFA World Cup

Questra: The ball was coated in a layer of Polystyrene foam which made it softer and easier to control and the ball also travelled much faster.

1998 FIFA World Cup

Tricolore: It was a first multicolored ball with the colors of a french national flag red, white and blue adorn the traids of the ball. The foam layer also made the ball softer.

2002 FIFA World Cup

Fevernova: The traditional Tango design was removed for the first time and two single enlarged triads were used. The background color also changed from white to champagne color.

2006 FIFA World Cup

Teamgeist: A more round shaped design with 14 panels and fewer seam was adopted for the first time and each match had its own individual ball.

2010 FIFA World Cup

Jabulani: Till date it remains the most controversial ball in the history of fifa world cup as its unpredictable behavior made the players very unhappy.

2014 FIFA World Cup

Brazuca: This time Adidas made sure to send the samples to players for testing before the cup. The ball was made from six polyurethane panels and did much better than Jabulani.

2018 FIFA World Cup

Telstar 18: The 1970’s classic Telstar model makes a return this time around with a latest panel design technology. This ball pays tribute to the first ever world cup ball from the Adidas.

The thermo-bonded Telstar 18 football features an NFC (near field communication) microchip that transmits information and promotes consumer interactivity utilizing smartphones.

Thermo-bonding technology uses heat to seamlessly patch panels, an improvement on stitching.

Al Rihla was a official matchball for FIFA Worldcup 2022 and in arabic it means, ’The Journey.’ The ball is produced by Adidas.

As Wikipedia puts it,”The ball contains a suspended inertial measurement unit inside its bladder that supplies the video assistant referee with instantaneous highly detailed ball movement data.”

Al Rihla was unveiled on March 30, 2022. If FIFA is to be believed then the visuals of the ball are inspired by the culture, architecture, boats and flag of Qatar. The blue, red, and yellow color scheme that is meant to represent the landscape of Qatar. On the “Pro” version of the ball one can read “Football is…” and all around “teamwork – fair play – collective – responsibility – passion – respect” in six languages: English, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, French, Spanish, and Esperanto.

This article was last updated on 20-01-2023.