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Children with an Alive & Kicking ball

Badges, stars and balls

Written on Sunday, September 7th, 2008 by Christian Wach

Winners of the World Cup can now display a badge as well as stars on the national shirt.

World Cup winners badge
The ‘FIFA World Champions Badge’ on the Italian shirt

In fact, it looks like the Italian FA has incorporated the stars into their badge design — previously the stars would circle the national FA’s badge, with a new one added for each World Cup won.

Four stars on the 2002 Brazil football shirt
Four stars on the 2002 Brazil football shirt

Why is this relevant to us? Well, at one point we thought that The Ball could represent the star that gets awarded at the end of the competition. That’s why the 2002 and 2006 films start with The Ball emerging from the heavens, descending to its starting point in Battersea Park like a shooting star coming down to earth. In a sense, the star on the shirt is a memory of that year’s Ball and the games played with it.

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The 2010 Route

The 2010 route

The Ball 2010 left Battersea Park on 24th Jan 2010 is heading to the Opening Ceremony in Johannesburg for the 11th June 2010.

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