The Kopanya ball on Flickr
From the Cape Argus:
The ball, manufactured by adidas, will be used exclusively in World Cup matches and is expected to be unveiled at Fifa’s final draw in Cape Town in December, Gavin Cowley, managing director of Adidas SA, has revealed.
Speaking during the bi-weekly 2010 lecture series in Green Point last night, Cowley said the ball, like the Confederations Cup soccer ball, had a name, but that it would be kept a secret for now.
“Like the Kopanya soccer ball, which we manufactured for the Confederations Cup this year, the World Cup official soccer ball will also have a name and will be truly South African in colour and design,” said Cowley.
“We are very excited and I wish I could tell all South Africans what design and colours we have selected for the World Cup soccer ball.
“Many might think it’s ridiculous, but the ball is a very important component of the beautiful game – without it there is no soccer.”
Well, we couldn’t agree more with that.
Oddly, however, the Argus also quotes the man from adidas as saying:
In December, when the official World Cup soccer ball is unveiled, over 700 000 million people will be watching.
My, that’s a lot of folks!
Source: IOL
A while back, I wrote a post about IFAB, commenting on the curious lack of transparency in that organisation. Well, it’s that time of year when they meet again. Today, FIFA published the agenda for the 2009 AGM of the IFAB. As ever, they’re going to be slumming it…
“Slieve Donard Hotel” by Vironevaeh on Flickr
Some of the more contentious items on the agenda:
The location of the dressing rooms in certain stadiums around the world is such that the walk from and back to the field of play can take players and match officials much of the current 15-minute half-time interval. It is therefore proposed that the maximum duration of the half-time interval be increased to 20 minutes.
So that’s it — nothing to do with advertising then. Phew.
The Irish FA would wish to gauge the opinion of the International Football Association Board on the possibility of using ‘Sin Bins’ for players guilty of breaches of the Laws of the Game, currently resulting in the administration of a yellow card.
Interesting. Not a proposal, but up for discussion. Hopefully FIFA will publish minutes this year so we can see what went on. We’ll see.
