Soccer Balls

Submitted by Mike-Jones

Selecting the right soccer ball boils down to choosing the size and construction of the ball based on the player’s age and league requirements. The younger the player, the smaller the ball in most cases. Cost is also a big factor in selecting the correct soccer ball. Synthetic-leather balls are the most expensive and basic rubber-type soccer balls cost the least. Leather is no longer the favorite choice of soccer ball coverings because leather absorbs more moisture than synthetic soccer balls. A wet leather ball gets heavier over time and becomes much slower in play.

There are three basic categories of soccer balls. Match soccer balls used in professional international matches meet all Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) requirements and are imprinted with the organization’s logo on the ball. They are also the most expensive type of soccer ball. In the middle range are the competition balls used in college and high school competition. Recreational and training balls fill are the least expensive.

Most soccer balls are made of blends of polyurethane (PU), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and common rubber or nylon. The best and most expensive PU balls feel like leather and are very firm, durable and water-resistant. The PVC balls are also very durable but are not as soft and responsive as the PU-blend balls. Common rubber and nylon balls can present a real value because they cost the least and last the longest. Although the rubber and nylon soccer balls lack the feel of match balls, they are fine for practice and training.

Soccer balls are all clearly marked in one of three sizes with the smaller the size number, the smaller the ball. Most all soccer balls come marked in sizes 3, 4 or 5. Size 3 soccer balls are used for beginners under 8 years old are 23-inches in circumference and weigh 12-ounces. Size 4 balls are designed for players between the ages of 8 and 12 and weigh about the same as the smaller balls at 12-ounces but are larger in circumference at just over 25-inches. Size 5 soccer balls are designed for use by all players 13 and older and are built to the international standard size for all sanctioned competition. The size 5 balls weigh about 15-ounces and have a circumference of 28-inches.

Additional factors to consider in soccer ball construction are the lining and inner bladder. The lining underneath the outer covering controls the shape and feel of the ball. The bladder contains the air inside the ball and also contributes to shape and responsiveness in play. Match soccer balls usually have four layers of a combined cotton/polyester-blend lining. Mid-range balls have two layers of cotton and two layers of polyester lining, and the least expensive balls have only two layers of polyester lining.

Soccer ball bladders come in both latex and butyl. The latex bladders are considered the best type of ball construction, but they don’t hold air as long as butyl bladders and need attention to proper inflation. Butyl or butyl-blend bladders hold their air better but are harder less responsive in play. The most common bladder found in mid-priced balls will usually be a blend of 80% butyl with 20% rubber.

The number of panels on a soccer ball can influence flight characteristics and how much control the player will have in play. A 32-panel ball is the type used in international soccer competition. Major League Soccer in the United States uses an 18-panel ball, and most indoor soccer leagues use 6-panel balls. The panels on high-end soccer balls are hand-stitched with synthetic thread. Mid-priced soccer balls have the same high-quality thread but are machine stitched to reduce cost. Low-cost practice and training balls will usually have panels that are glued together.

Adidas, Nike, Voit, Puma, Brine and Diadora all make good all-around quality balls that are relatively affordable, ranging from $20 to $80. Good practice balls can be purchased for as little as $15. For most young players today, an inexpensive training ball is usually all they will need to get into soccer and start having fun.

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About The Author:

Mike Jones is an experienced blog master and published author. He lives in Los Angeles California. For more info please visit www.soccerballs.com

Deadly Worries for Soccer’s Youth in Africa

By ROB HUGHES

There is a potentially deadly situation brewing for U.S. soccer in Africa — and it has nothing to do with the Americans feeling hard done by because its player Ricardo Clark received a red card for a knee-high kick at Italy’s Gennaro Gattuso in South Africa in the Confederations Cup.

All the United States lost in Pretoria on Monday was a game at the start of a tournament that serves as a rehearsal for next year’s World Cup finals.

More serious, by far, were the murder late Sunday of a player gunned down by armed robbers in Nigeria, the terrorist attacks on three American oil facilities in the Niger delta, and a warning that the Under-17 World Cup scheduled for Nigeria in late October and early November could be a target.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta — MEND — issued an e-mailed statement sent to, among others, several news agencies, of its intent to widen the attacks and concluded: “We also take this opportunity to advise FIFA to have a rethink about Nigeria hosting the Under-17 World Cup tournament at this time, as the safety of international players and visitors cannot be guaranteed due to current unrest.”

This specific mention of the youth tournament should concern FIFA, soccer’s world authority, rather more than the usual laments that referees are not doing their job, or that, in South Africa, stadiums are only half full, buses are late or the playing fields not pristine.

FIFA has made this Africa’s year. South Africa now, and in 2010. Egypt hosts the Under-20 World Cup in September and October. Nigeria is struggling to convince FIFA that its stadiums are ready for the Under-17 event.

The United States is one of the 24 nations that has qualified for this tournament. And Chevron is an American company pumping oil in the delta.

FIFA’s first duty, surely, is the safety of those boys. They follow in the footsteps of Cesc Fàbregas, a Spaniard; Nii Lamptey, a Ghanaian; Landon Donovan, an American; and Toni Kroos, a German, the golden ball winners of past world youth tournaments.

The countries qualified to send teams to the championship this fall are Algeria, Gambia, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Iran, South Korea, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay and New Zealand.

As FIFA rules stand, any of those nations could be punished for pulling its boys out of the conflict zone in Nigeria. Once FIFA has decreed that the games go on, attendance is compulsory.

Jack Warner, a FIFA vice president from Trinidad and Tobago, heads the inspection committee that is due to revisit Nigeria in July. His task is onerous.

Sports have a long history of refusing to be frightened off by the terrorist threat, and there would be little hope of sustaining the Olympic Games or the World Cup if it were to bow to every threat or warning.

However, the murder of Abiel Tabor as he drove home to his family after the team that he captains, Bayelsa United, won Nigeria’s Premier League on Sunday, exacerbates the issue facing FIFA. If Tabor were the victim of random armed robbery, it is scary enough; if the gunmen knew who he was and had a more sinister agenda, the implications for the Under-17 tournament are horrendous.

Meanwhile, some 2,500 miles, or 4,000 kilometers, south, the drum beat is rolling toward the senior World Cup.

The organizers of the World Cup trumpet the noisy exuberance of local fans as one of the selling points of next year’s competition for traveling fans and the vast audience of armchair viewers alike. But it’s a personal wish that South Africans be reintroduced to their skills on the drums. What we have right now, transmitted by television, is a tuneless cacophony of horns, bugles and sirens that sound like swarms of irritated wasps.

There may be nothing FIFA or anyone else can do to relieve us of this headache now, but the promised sight and sound of real Africa it is not.

The authentic skills on the ground, however, are visible.

Now that all eight countries invited to test four of the 10 stadiums being built for 2010 have each had one match, a shape begins to grow.