It wouldn’t be the World Cup without Adidas designing a new soccer ball that the players can complain about. For 2018’s Cup they’ve introduced the Telstar 18, a graphic update on the classic, black-and-white-TV-friendly Telstar from 1970. (Thus far goalies reportedly hate it, finding the ball unpredictable and slippery.)
Adidas’ designers opted to place an NFC chip inside of the ball. Why? Beats the hell out of me–in this interview with one of the designers, his explanation is wildly unsatisfying:
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There’s a YouTube channel called What’s Inside that, well, looks inside of things. In this one they cut a Telstar 18 open, then an original Telstar to see the difference:
Thus far one, possibly two of the Telstar 18s have burst during match play, during the France-Australia game. It remains to be seen whether this is an anomaly, or will turn into a consistent disaster on the level of the Jabulani.
Source: core77