WHAT GOES into the creation of a ball for the World Cup?
It’s simple. “We test, test, and test,” said Fransizka Loeffelmann, design director for football graphics and hardwear at adidas.
This vigorous testing included wind tunnels and a workaholic robotic leg, “which always hits the ball in a given space with a certain defined velocity,” said Oliver Hundacker, adidas’ senior director for football product development, to Spin.ph. “With that, you can then measure with high speed cameras how the ball behaves in flight and how fast it actually travels.”
It’s the Three Stripes’ fourteenth go-round at designing a ball for the Fifa World Cup, which will kick off in November at Qatar. And while you’d expect that making balls every four years would already be old hat for adidas, the designers brought in all their innovation expertise to create the fastest ball the brand has ever made for the quadrennial tournament.
The end result is picturesquely called Al Rihla — “the journey” — and features a polyurethane “Speedshell” with a 20-piece panel shape. Colorful, prismatic graphics inspired by Qatari elements run across its textured surface. Inside, the designers tuned its CTR-core to maintain accuracy and consistency across all levels of play, at all conditions.
Al Rihla is Qatar World Cup-ready
And while the ball is designed to be played in all kinds of pitches all over the world, Hundacker and his team paid special attention to how Al Rihla would perform under the blistering Qatar heat.
“We tested the ball in the Arab Cup at the end of last year to see how the materials are behaving,” he related.
“Obviously, when you are exposed to high temperatures, the materials tend to get softer, and I think that has an impact on the ball. But overall, I think, with all the thorough analysis and data analytics, we are pretty confident that the ball [will perform] even in very hot climates.”
The Philippines already had a taste of World Cup fever earlier this year, when the Pilipinas Women’s National Team qualified, for the first time, to the Fifa Women’s World Cup. It was a historic moment for the sport in a country that’s historically paid more attention to the hardcourt.
“Football is a global game,” said Hundacker. “We are really interested to bring football to this side of the world as well. We really hope that we can provide joy with a new ball and that there are positive moments to remember when watching the games and seeing the ball in action.”
And at the end of the call with Philippine press, Loeffelmann gave an enthusiastic cheer for the PWNT — proof, indeed, that football transcends all barriers.
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