Core77

Last night I finally caught up on some of the World Cup exhibition matches online. One of the Spanish players actually stopped the match in their friendly with South Korea over concerns about the ball not being up to code, or whatever the football version of up to code is called.

This year's new ball, called the Jabulani, is apparently causing some controversy. As one of the match commentators put it, FIFA's damning indictment to criticism was along the lines of "Look, we didn't design the ball--Adidas did." Players including legendary Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar have complained about the ball's behavior.

I did a little digging and turned up Popular Mechanics' "How to Design a Better Soccer Ball" article:

Every four years, the German company Adidas unveils what they hope is the perfect soccer ball, to be used in the FIFA World Cup. For the 2010 tournament, which begins in June in South Africa, designers used a wind tunnel to create a highly calibrated soccer ball of optimal roundness and stable flight.

[image via Popular Mechanics]

Complaints about this year's ball have been logged by TheOriginalWinger:

...[Julio] Cesar described the World Cup balls as "terrible," comparing them with cheap ones bought in a supermarket. [Spain's Iker] Casillas said the balls were "in an appalling condition."

Field players have been critical too. Brazil striker Luis Fabiano described the ball as "weird" and suddenly changing trajectory and Italy's Giampaolo Pazzini said it was "a disaster."

"It moves so much and makes it difficult to control," the Italian striker said. "You jump up to head a cross and suddenly the ball will move and you miss it."

ESPN also sounded off on the problem:

For their part, Adidas remains unfazed and are blaming South African altitude for any erratic behavior on the part of the ball. They also point out that there are traditionally complaints about every new World Cup ball; in 2002 Adidas countered these complaints by suggesting players were kicking the ball too hard.

Kinda makes you wonder, why keep rede$igning the darn thing?