Law 2 - Law 2 Balls - Balls - 17 Soccer Laws - Football Law 2 - Football Balls - Soccer Balls - Football Rules - Dimensions


Soccer Law 2: Balls


A football is a ball used to play the game of soccer. In the distant past, crude balls such as inflated pigs' bladders were used, but balls are now designed by teams of engineers to exacting specifications. Each code of football uses a different ball, though they all belong to one of two different basic shapes:

  • a sphere: used in Association football (also called soccer in some countries) and Gaelic football
  • a prolate spheroid ('egg-shaped')
  • either with rounded ends: used in Rugby football and Australian football
  • or with more pointed ends: used in American football and Canadian football
  • The precise shape and construction of footballs is typically specified as part of the rules and regulations.

    Association football
    Dimensions Law 2 of the game specifies that the ball is an air-filled sphere with a circumference of 68-70 cm (27-28 in), a weight 410-450 g (14-16 oz), inflated to a pressure of 0.6 - 1.1 atmosphere (600 - 1,100 g/cm2) at sea level (8.5 lbs/sq in - 15.6 lbs/sq in), and covered in leather or "other suitable material". The weight specified for a ball is the dry weight, as older balls often became significantly heavier in the course of a match played in wet weather. The standard ball is a Size 5, although smaller sizes exist: Size 3 is standard for team handball and Size 4 in futsal and other small-field variants. Other sizes are used in underage games or as novelty items.

    Construction of the football

    A truncated icosahedron compared with an association football (soccer) ballMost modern footballs are stitched from 32 panels of waterproofed leather or plastic: 12 regular pentagons and 20 regular hexagons. The 32-panel configuration is the spherical polyhedron corresponding to the truncated icosahedron; it is spherical because the faces bulge due to the pressure of the air inside. The first 32-panel ball was marketed by Select in the 1950s in Denmark. This configuration became common throughout Continental Europe in the 1960s, and was publicised worldwide by the Adidas Telstar, the official ball of the 1970 World Cup.

    The familiar 32 panel soccer ball design is sometimes referenced to describe the truncated icosahedron archimedean solid, carbon buckyballs or the root structure of geodesic domes.

    The official match ball of the 2006 FIFA World CupOlder balls were usually stitched from 18 oblong non-waterproof leather panels, similar to the design of modern volleyballs and Gaelic footballs, and laced to allow access to the internal air bladder. This configuration is still common.

    The official FIFA World Cup football for Germany 2006 matches was the 14-panel Adidas +Teamgeist. It was made in Thailand by Adidas, who have provided the official match balls for the tournament since 1970, and is a "thermally bonded" machine-pressed ball, rather than a traditionally stitched one. Adidas will continue to supply the official football for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.

    Another ball with an innovative pattern is the 26-panel Mitre PRO 100T.

    There are also indoor footballs, which are made of one or two pieces of plastic. Often these have designs printed on them to resemble a stitched leather ball.

    Child labour
    About 80% of association footballs are made in Pakistan. 75% of these (60% of all world production) are made in the city of Sialkot. Child labour was commonly used in the production of the balls. In 1996, during the European championship, activists lobbied to end the use of child labour. This eventually led to the Atlanta Agreement, which seeks to reform the industry to eliminate the use of child labour in the production of balls. This also led to a centralisation of production, which on the one hand would make it easier for the Independent Monitoring Association for Child Labour (IMAC) - an organization created to watch over the Atlanta Agreement - to make sure no child labour occurred, on the other hand often forced workers to commute further to get to work. According to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the problem of eliminating the use of child labour is extremely complex, and that FIFA itself has neither "the experience nor the means to eradicate this wide-reaching problem on its own.".[