subject: The Soccer Ball - An Ageless Entertainment [print this page] It's stated that hundreds and hundreds of years ago, South American Indians already kicked an elasticized ball for fun. They used things like heads, skulls, stitched up cloth and pig or cow bladders. The Chinese played "tsu chu" where animal skin balls were dribbled through gaps in a net stretched between two poles. The actual soccer ball only arrived after a couple of thousand years. Ancient Egyptian rites are believed to have similarities with soccer, and both the ancient Greeks and Romans likewise played a game that entailed carrying and kicking a ball.
The more irregular the bladders used as balls were, the more unpredictable was its behavior. After Charles Goodyear trademarked vulcanized rubber, he designed the first rubber soccer ball (football). It was just in the 20th century that rubber bladders were began to be used in most balls. In 1862, Lindon created one of the first rubber bladders for balls, probably inspired due to the ill effects of blowing animal bladders, after his wife died of lung disease.
The soccer ball is an air filled sphere with a circumference of 68-70 cm, weight 210-250 g, covered in leather or other suitable material. Most of the modern balls are stitched with 32 panels of water proof leather or plastic and the colours are usually black and white. Over the years, balls have come to be lighter. Older Balls were generally stitched with 18 oblong leather panels. The problem is that these balls were extremely heavy. Though in the previous World Cup in 2006, the ball is stitched with 14 panels and the colour isn't the usual black and white. By reducing the amount of panels used, the more precise a shot with that ball will be, because with the fewer the amount of panels, the more perfect the circumference gets.
The black and white colors on the soccer ball were defined so that it could be seen better on monochrome televisions, but in cases just like playing in the snow, the soccer balls have various colours for example yellow or orange. The soccer ball utilized in the World Cup 2006 final is golden with white and black details. Some soccer ball brands are creating new technologies like using foam as part of the composition of the ball or even having rings to ensure that goalkeepers can figure out the spin of the ball.
These days there are many brands that make soccer balls, amongst which are the well-known ones for example Adidas, Nike, Mitre, etc. Around 80% of the association soccer balls are made in Pakistan, and 75% of these are created in the city of Sialkot.
As soccer is by far the most popular sport in the world, you can find a soccer ball almost in every place on the planet. It does not mean much if it is called football, soccer, fussball, futebol or ftbol, one will constantly find some soccer ball being kicked around, even in countries where the sport is not as popular as in Brazil, Argentina, England, or Germany. Soccer balls are even utilized in peace campaigns, with special games as on with team with players from Palestine and Israel, playing side by side in a same team united by the same soccer ball.
