Soccer ball design has evolved significantly since the days of hand-stitched leather. Since the turn of the century, adidas has used the FIFA World Cup™ as an opportunity to showcase its latest technology, with the ball taking center stage. When it comes to spherical design, the geometry behind the ball is fascinating and involves more math than you might think.

1970 - Telstar

The classic black and white soccer ball originated from a particular molecular structure known as a “Bucky Ball”, named after the American architect and systems theorist Richard Buckminster Fuller Jr., who utilized the design in his work. 

Another term for the shape is a truncated icosahedron, which sounds much more complicated than it is. Simply put, an icosahedron is a polyhedron that utilizes triangular faces, and truncation refers to the act of cutting off all the vertices, or points where the triangular faces meet. The resulting shape reveals the 12 pentagons at the truncation point and converts the 20 triangular faces into 20 hexagonal faces. 

In 1970, adidas debuted the “Telstar” at that year’s World Cup held in Mexico. The ball’s design featured 12 black pentagons and 20 white hexagons and immediately became the global blueprint for soccer ball design. Adidas achieved tremendous success, utilizing it for another 38 years, only adding cosmetic updates to the designs and some durability improvements in later versions, including the Tricolore and Fevernova. After that, the designs began to take on new shapes, literally.

2006 - +Teamgeist

 In 2006, adidas announced a departure from the global norm with their brand-new +Teamgeist match ball. While the curved panels and striking design initially indicate a move away from the geometric-based concepts of before, the ball still falls into the category of a truncated solid, only this time it’s an octahedron. The ball featured 14 curved panels, less than half of the previous design, and consisted of eight hexagons and six squares. 

For the +Teamgeist, those hexagons were heavily warped into triangular-shaped panels with three curved sides and three flat ends.. The squares were not squares at all, but rather oblong, bone-shaped designs that fit perfectly into the curved sides of the hexagonal panels. 

This change reduced the number of three-panel touch points by 60% and the total length of the panel lines fell by over 15% compared to the previous 32-panel design. While the public reaction was generally positive, adidas decided to continue this process into the following tournament in 2010.

2010 - Jabulani

Without a doubt, the Jabulani is still the most controversial match ball ever created by adidas. The ball was incredibly smooth and aerodynamically sound, but it behaved unpredictably in the air, thanks to several factors, including its grooved surface, narrow panel gaps, and geometric design.

Many speculated based on the deep grooves adorning the panel designs that the ball could be a truncated truncated tetrahedron, meaning it began as a four-sided pyramid shape, before an initial truncation, followed by a second subsequent truncation, that exposed four regular nonagons, four regular hexagons, and four isosceles trapezoids.

However, that was inaccurate, as the ball only had eight true panels: four hexagonal panels and four triangular panels. After rounding the corners of the triangular faces to fit into the curved portions of the hexagonal shapes, the truncated tetrahedron took shape, became the Jabulani, and changed the way adidas approached ball design forever.

2014 - Brazuca

Rather than fooling around with these complicated truncated polyhedra, adidas decided to use one of the simplest designs possible for their 2014 edition. The Brazuca is based on a cube, using six identical panels that meet at eight fixed vertices or corners.

   

The ball was such a success that adidas utilized the same concept when creating the Telstar 18 in 2018. Again, the ball featured six identical panels with eight corner points, where three panels met. The ball was again seen as highly predictable, something often desired in soccer, but the simplicity of these two designs was not indicative of what was to come.

2022 - Al Rihla

Rather than just six, Al Rihla jumped all the way up to 20 panels, more than any World Cup ball since 2002. The eight triangular and 12 kite-shaped diamond panels create a truncated rhombic dodecahedron. Try saying that three times fast. 

   

It's a specific type of 12-sided polyhedron, called a rhombic dodecahedron, that’s been truncated at each point to create the additional eight triangular panels. The ball behaved fairly predictably despite its incredibly complicated design, but it seems adidas will once again go in a simpler direction for 2026. We shall see when they release the new ball for next summer’s tournament on Friday, October 3rd!