World Cup Balls

During the 1950s, ball manufacturers had started painting the leather white so that the ball could be seen easier against the green/brown pitches. They'd also painted orange balls so that they could be used and seen in snowy conditions. It's unclear why they adopted an orange ball for the 1966 World Cup tournament, but it's quite an iconic part of that tournament, especially with some of the controversy in the final. As Geoff Hurst became the first (and still, the only) player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final, no-one would have denied him the opportunity to claim the match-ball in honour of such a feat. However, someone did, as West German forward Helmut Haller claimed the ball and took it back to Germany! To be fair to Haller, 30 years later he returned it back to England, which was a nice touch.

Mexico 70 marked the start of the adidas era of designing and manufacturing the official World Cup football. The Telstar had been introduced at the 1968 European Championships, with the Elast model. The 1970 version was just called the Telstar. Based on the iconic 32-panel ball, with 12 black panels and 20 white panels, not only did the pattern look good, it also helped visibility on black and white TV broadcasts, and this was the first World Cup to be broadcast globally.

The name comes from the Telstar satellite, a number of which were launched in the early 1960s and had a similar appearance to the football with the solar panels dotted around.

adidas stuck with the Telstar for the West German tournament, but used the "Durlast" model, its polyurethane coating provided protection from damage and was also waterproof.

If it was possible to make the Tango from the 1978 World Cup look any better, then adidas somehow just managed it at España '82