How footballs have improved throughout football.
Footballs have drastically changed and improved throughout the years due to increases in technology. When football first became popular footballers would use very heavy leather balls tied together with bootlaces. These balls could double in weight if the weather was bad as they would absorb the water and therefore it was nearly impossible to play the attractive, free flowing football that we see in today's game.
The first synthetic footballs were used in the 1960s and these were a major improvement as they do not absorb water but kept the same qualities of a leather football. The synthetic balls retain their shape and are a lot lighter which allows team and players to manipulate the ball how they want to play more attractive and exciting football. The first world cup to use the updated synthetic football was Mexico 1986. Since then all the world cup footballs have been made by Adidas. The 2010 world cup ball for South Africa was controversial as it was considered 'too light' by many players. This image shows how the footballs used in the world cup have changed over the years.
Modern footballs are now mostly manufactured by machines. This means that all the stitching, the size and the weight of the ball will be ideal for modern day football. The synthetic leather material used to cover the footballs is usually made up of polyurethane and poly vinyl chloride. The following video shows the process of manufacturing a modern day football.
No comments:
Post a Comment