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A
LOAD OF OLD BALL'S
by Paul Davidson
(With help from Ken Goldman and Arsenal F.C.)
As
you may, or may not know, or care even, the Nationwide League have
introduced a fluorescent yellow ball to the game, to be used during
the winter months, supposedly so that people can see it better,
especially on tv.
Whether
or not this is the case, I don't really know. I personally don't
know of anyone that could not see the white one, but there it is,
must do all we can for those people whose only glimpse of football
is Port Vale v Stockport on tv on a Sunday lunchtime!
This
introduction of a new type of ball got me thinking of some of the
other changes to the ball that have occurred over the years. Until
the 1950's footballs were always a dark brown or tan colour, presumably
to go with the chocolate brown paint of most of the houses.
When
floodlights were invented experiments started in using white balls
which, more or less, has lasted to this day. The earliest versions
of these white balls were ordinary brown ones painted white and
so were excellent for the first half or so, but disappeared into
the gloom after the break.
Things
really started to get jolly when people noticed that these white
balls tended to vanish if it was snowy or foggy (matches were not
postponed for such wimpish reasons up until the 1980's) and so the
authorities played about, literally, with various colours including
red, orange and yellow.
One
of the strangest stories about the colour of the match ball is told
by 1963 FA Cup Final ref Ken Aston. He was asked apparently, if
he would use a white ball in the cup final by many partially sighted
people as it showed up well on tv. Then as now, the authorities
were not too sure about an innovation like this, so to split the
difference Mr Aston used a yellow ball for the game, which was apparently
a great success.
Apart
from the actual colour of the ball, various other things have changed
about it over the years. Until late in 1966, for example, there
was no regulation about the pressure of the ball, only the actual
dimensions. At the World Cup in that year, regulations stated that
the ball had to be made of leather and not be "dangerous to the
players".
Now
these leather balls used to change shape during a game as both the
leather and the stitches expanded. This increase in size led to
a lowering of the internal pressure and all balls used in the competition
had to be pumped up, not only before the game, but at half-time
as well. This leads to a theory that the ball Geoff Hurst smashed
into the German goal deep in extra time in the final was in fact
as flat as a pancake, partly due to the un-football like temperature
on the day.
When
regulations were added about the pressure soon after this event,
they stated that the pressure must be between certain levels "at
sea level", which accounts for the way the ball seems to fly about
all over the place when you see games played at altitude. The 1970
World Cup in Mexico was a great example of this, as the higher up
a game was played, the different pressure was in the ball. Funny
things happened to the balls at the 1998 World Cup in France as
well.
The
balls used for starting the games were kept by the referee inside
the air-conditioned dressing room for quite a time before the game
and carried onto the pitch by them. The spare balls dotted around
the pitch for use when the original ones left the field of play
were kept outside in the sun for more or less the same amount of
time. In Marseille for example, the temperature was about 30 degrees
hotter on the pitch than inside the dressing rooms.
This
led to the replacement balls behaving completely differently to
the original match ball. Now I am not suggesting that Earlsmead
is 8,000 feet above sea level, or that the temperature on the pitch
is 25 degrees above the sumptuous luxury of the dressing rooms.
But the next time a Boro forward misses a sitter in front of goal,
before you start to shout at him, just remember that it just might
not be his fault, it could be a case of "a load of old balls!"
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