The New Republic

We seem to get this noise about the ball at every World Cup now and by the second round the weight of evidence, as produced above, ends the debate. It's becoming a ritual of the game. However, I don't think anyone would dispute that over the years the balls have become much lighter. (I'd like to see today's players kick that pig blather that England used to win it in 66. Come to think of it, FIFA should insist that game is replayed with the new ball! Otherwise, you've been living a lie Alex and I suspect you know that deep in your nicotine stained soul.) From my trained eye, the bounce of the ball does seem excessive. It's almost impossible to determine how much the ball is moving in the air compared to previous balls but there does seem to be a savage bounce off it. I reckon a standard should be set by FIFA on the air compression or other such technical specs of an official ball and then we can all get on with our lives...and complain about the altitude. But that would depend on FIFA actually doing its job and managing the global game: soccerball is unique in its refusal to allow TV replay's to improve decision making. Look how successful this has been in Rugby. Why isn't there more debate about this and other anachronisms like no appeal process during the competition for clearly atrocious cards like Kaka's for example? We'd be better off spending our time examining FIFA's corrosive lack of imagination in adopting clear improvements in the sport.

- IggyPop

June 26, 2010 at 8:21am