Due to the indisputable success of the Tango in the 1978 World Cup and the 1980 Euro Cup, Adidas did not design and produce a revolutionary new ball for the Spanish World Cup in 1982. Instead they made a ball called Tango España, with only minor changes from its predecessors. This ball was the first Adidas World Cup ball to be name inspired by the host country. The ball was almost identical to the previous Tango. It was once again composed of 32 hand sewn panels, with the same black and white Tango design: the curved triangles were printed on every hexagon, which formed circles around the 12 pentagonal panels, giving the ball a great visual illusion of 12 identical circles.

Content courtesy of Worldcupballs.info

For the 1978 FIFA World Cup Adidas launched a brand new model with a revolutionary design: The Tango, inspired by the classic dance from Argentina. The design consisted of 20 black and promptly curved triangles, each one printed onto the white coloured surface of each hexagonal panel. Since the pentagonal panels were white coloured too, the triangles created a series of black and elegant circles on a white surface. When the ball was rotating, a nice effect was created by the black circles, which was visually very attractive. The Tango became extremely popular and it became associated with the Adidas brand itself — these two words were interchangeable in the 80’s. No wonder why the Tango design was applied on official Adidas match balls until the 2000 Euro Cup.

Content courtesy of Worldcupballs.info

The fact that Adidas did not produce a new design for the 1974 FIFA World Cup is a testament of how successful the initial Telstar balls became. Adidas even kept the Telstar name, only the text on the balls were updated. The previous balls became heavier when wet, which made them much more difficult to control — players had to kick them harder to reach the same distance. The new balls were coated by a stronger Durlast layer, though, in order to prevent water coming into the ball through the seams. This changed the picture of the games significantly.

Content courtesy of Worldcupballs.info

Adidas became the official supplier of match balls for the FIFA World Cup in 1970, and still is. The very first black and white ball was called “Telstar”, coming from the union of two words: television and star. It was said at that time that the combination and contrast of black and white would amplify the visibility of the balls on both colour and black and white televisions, given that the Mexican World Cup was the first World Cup to be broadcast on TV worldwide. The Telstar consisted of 32 panels (20 white regular hexagonal and 12 black regular pentagonal), and on the outer surface a special plastic coating was applied and called “Durlast”. This helped the ball to protect the leather more than previously on any surface and to keep it waterproof. The Telstar is still one of the most iconic and classic football of all time and by far the most expensive one (if ever found on sale).

Content courtesy of Worldcupballs.info

The Slazenger Challenge was made of high quality leather and entirely hand sewn. It was composed of 25 rectangular panels, joined together in a way that was very similar to the 1958 ball and which differed only in the panel which contained the valve. In the Slazenger ball the valve was in the centre of a small panel between two other, even shorter panels. The remaining panels were the same as the 1958 ball and the inflating system was the latest type valve — latex rubber. The ball provided excellent sphericity, and its composition was adopted over the years by other brands. The balls of the 1966 World Cup were provided in three different colours; white, yellow, and orange. Although the most widely used model was the white version, in the memory of football fans the orange ball of the historic final of Wembley remains the strongest.

Contents courtesy of Worldcupballs.info

The Crack ball had an innovative design. It was composed of 18 irregular polygonal panels, having three different shapes: hexagonal, rectangular and hexagonal curved, all joined together by manual sewing. With the new latex valve the air and the spherical shape was retained longer. The Crack ball is still aesthetically considered one of the most elegant World Cup balls. However, the quality of the coloured coating was poor and did not last for very long. European teams did not like the ball, therefore 100 pieces of the 1958 Top Star were sent as reserves to Chile, in case the Crack model would fail in a match.

Contents courtesy of Worldcupballs.info

The Top Star ball became a popular design, it was similar to the balls of the time — however, on this ball there were elegantly alternating long and short panels; two short panels in the midst of two long panels and the inflation valve was in the centre of one short panel. The ball brought technological developments as well — the leather balls were treated with a waterproofing wax, making the balls more water resistant. The 1958 World Cup balls were yellow, light brown or white. In matches when it was rainy or wet, the white ones were used.

Content courtesy of Worldcupballs.info

The official match ball of the 1954 FIFA World Cup was composed of 18 panels with zig-zag edges, perfectly interlocked to each other. The ball was completely hand sewn and no longer had laces — just like its predecessor, the Superball from the 1950 World Cup. The colour of the ball was not dark brown any more, rather an attractive yellowish or “hell orange”. This made the ball more visible during rainy matches when the pitch became muddy. The name of this newly designed ball was Swiss World Champion and it was manufactured by the company Kost Sports from Basel.

Content courtesy of Worldcupballs.info

Even though the lace-less construction had been invented at the beginning of the thirties, it took more than a decade for lace-less balls appearing at the FIFA World Cup. The 1950 Superball consisted of 12 identical panels but the edges of these panels were more curved than before. The Superball was a brown hand sewn ball, and FIFA allowed the manufacturer to print logos and text on the ball. As we can see in the case of the balls from 1954 (Switzerland), 1958 (Sweden) and 1966 (England) World Cup balls, this was an exception since these balls had to be free from branding — regardless of that the manufacturers put branded balls on the general market for sale at the same time. However, for the 1962 ball (Chile, between the 1958 and 1966 World Cups) they allowed print and text on the Crack ball used in the Chile World Cup.

Content courtesy of Worldcupballs.info

The Allen ball used in 1938 was similar to the Federale 102 from the previous World Cup since it also consisted of 13 panels. The cotton laces of the Allen balls were white — however, this was not a long lasting colour, since the rain and mud immediately changed the colour of the laces to brown. The ball was hand sewn, just like its predecessors, and had to be inflated by a skilled person. If the inflation and closure of the laces were not precise, the ball would not become spherical — which would influence the trajectory of the ball.

Content courtesy of Worldcupballs.info