Soccer Balls History

A long time ago, a soccer ball was made out of a pig's bladder. Nowadays, they're high tech pieces of equipment that are designed to be precision made, lightweight, durable and multi-sided pieces of modern ingenuity.

A soccer ball has four major components: the cover, stitching, the lining and the bladder. These days, the outer part, or the cover of a soccer ball, is made of synthetic leather. In the 'old days', the cover of the soccer ball used to be made of full-grain leather, but that material absorbed too much water and the soccer ball grew too heavy. The synthetic leather that a soccer ball is made from today are lightweight and water resistant.

Each soccer ball is made up of 32 separate panels, though some designs use less and some use more. The 32-sided soccer ball is the most common and is used in professional soccer games around the world. Here's where a good head for math comes in. A soccer ball is made up of 20 hexagonal and 12 pentagonal panels. The panels on the soccer ball bulge out because of the amount of air pressure inside the ball. If fewer panels are used to construct a soccer ball, the ball tends to curve more when airborne, because it's less stable.

The panels on a soccer ball can be stitched or glued together, but the best soccer balls are stitched by hand, which gives the soccer ball a stronger, tighter seam. These hand stitched soccer balls are more expensive than those that are machine stitched, but they're well worth the extra dollars. The cheaper soccer ball choices are glued, and these soccer balls are commonly used for practice sessions.

A lining is found beneath the cover of a soccer ball, and in the more expensive soccer ball, several layers of this lining can be found. These layers give the soccer ball added form, bounce and strength. A soccer ball used in a professional match will have four or more layers of lining inside, while a practice soccer ball will have less.

The bladder of a soccer ball holds the air. These days, a bladder is not made from animals, but from latex or butyl. A butyl bladder holds air longer than a latex one, but latex bladders seem to provide a better surface feel in a soccer ball.

A soccer ball is stitched together in a process that begins with cutting out the panels piece by piece. Holes are punches around the edges of these panels. Then the soccer ball panels are turned inside out so that when finished, none of the stitches will show on the outside of the soccer ball. A different type of needle is used on these pieces. When finished, the soccer ball is turned right side out and the bladder is placed inside and inflated. One person might make four soccer balls a day. After completion, each soccer ball must go through multiple tests and graded for quality and performance. If a soccer ball needs to be used for a professional match, it must undergo other tests before it ends up on the playing field.