Background

People have played games similar to modern soccer around the world since ancient times. The oldest recorded soccer-like game is the Chinese game of tsu-chu, allegedly invented by the emperor Huang-Ti in 1697 B.C. Records from Huang-Ti's time describe a game played with a leather ball stuffed with animal hair and cork. Two teams vied to kick it through goal posts. The Japanese played a similar game called kemari in the same era. A North African game from the seventh century B.C. was also evidently similar to soccer, though it was a ceremonial game played as part of a fertility rite.

The ancient Greeks participated in a game involving kicking and throwing a ball on a marked field. It was called espiskyros. The Romans later had similar games, probably adapted from the Greek. One of the Roman games was called follis, and used a large light ball filled with hair. In follis, the players tried to keep the ball in the air with their hands. Another version was called harpastum. In this rougher game, players tried to tackle the person with the ball. Harpastum was popular among Roman soldiers, and it spread throughout Italy, and then across the Roman Empire. The game was brought to England, and from there its history becomes more narrowly British.

The balls used in early Britain were probably made from inflated animal bladders, though there are persistent rumors of games played with human heads. The skulls of either Roman or Viking oppressors were said to have been batted about at various Dark Age revelries. The British also may have had a soccer-like game played with the head of an animal, used in pre-Christian times as a fertility rite. This evolved in the Middle Ages into a game played on Shrove Tuesday. Teams competed to kick the head of an animal around their agricultural fields. The winning team got to bury the head on its ground, supposedly guaranteeing a good harvest.

By the 1300s, soccer (at that point called football) had evolved into a rough street game, where opposing mobs injured each other and crashed through houses and stores in their struggle to get the ball through the goal posts. King Edward II outlawed the game in 1314, and subsequent rulers had to renew his decree. As with the Roman soldiers, football was popular with British army men, and they apparently neglected their military training in order to play.

The game continued to be played in the streets of England at least through the eighteenth century, but in the nineteenth century, it became an upper-crust game, played at British public schools and colleges. Each school had its own rules, and the first standardized soccer rules were published in 1862, so that graduates of the different schools could play harmoniously. The English Football Association was founded in 1863. The term soccer dates to that time, when in British college student slang the term ruggers was the game played at Rugby, and soccer was the game played according to the Football Association rules.

When the English Football Association was founded and it's official rules (based on Eton rules) of the game soccer drafted, it excluded certain game nuances that had developed at the Rugby school. Running with the ball and hacking (violently scrapping

The inner bladder of a soccer ball can be made from either natural or synthetic rubber that is gendy heated and forced into a mold. The outer panels are produced from sheets of synthetic leather backed with several layers of cloth, to strengthen the material. The sheets of synthetic leather are passed through a die-cutting machine that cuts the hexagonal panels and also punches the stitch holes. The panels are then silkscreened and imprinted with the manufacturer's logo.

at the ball with the boot to get it away from the player or tripping the player running with the ball) were not adopted by the Cambridge rules, and so Rugbeian teams refused to join the Football Association. In 1871, eight years after the organization of the English Football Association, Rugby teams formed the Rugby Football Union, which drafted its own official rules of the game rugby. With so much strong debate over hacking, the Rugby Football Union also discarded the practice. Over the years, rugby rules have been modified, but still the game and its equipment remains distinct from soccer.

Worldwide spread of soccer came with the expansion of the British empire. British laborers working on the Argentine and Uruguayan railroads took the game to those countries. International codification of the rules came in 1904, with the founding of the International Federation of Association Football (known by its acronym in French, FIFA). By the late 1990s, soccer was the most popular game on Earth, with millions of fans and a burgeoning equipment industry.

Raw Matericals

The standard soccer ball is made of synthetic leather, usually polyurethane or polyvinyl chloride, stitched around an inflated rubber or rubber-like bladder. Older balls were made of genuine leather and held shut with cotton laces. Modern balls have a valve. The synthetic leather panels are backed with cloth, usually polyester or a poly-cotton blend. The backing is held on with a latex adhesive. The ball is spherical, and for standard play must be no bigger than 28 in (71.12 cm) around, and no smaller than 27 in (68.6 cm). Its weight is specified at no less than 14 oz (0.392 kg) and no more than 16 oz (0.448 kg), filled to a pressure of 15 lb per sq in (6.8 kg per sq cm).

The Manufacturing
Process

There are two main elements of the soccer ball. One is the inner bladder, the second is the outer covering. Sometimes the whole soccer ball is made under one roof.

The 32 panels are sewn together by hand. The stitcher inserts the bladder and sews the final seams. In order to ensure that the bladder has not been punctured by a needle during stitching, a worker pumps up the ball. Then, the finished ball is deflated again and packed for shipping.

In many cases, the bladders are manufactured and the covering is die-cut and imprinted with logos at a central factory, and the stitching is done by hand elsewhere. The ball covering consists of 32 hexagonal panels, and the hand stitching of these is tedious and exacting work. Over 80% of all soccer balls are manufactured in Pakistan.

Lining the cover material

• 1 Sheets of synthetic leather are backed with several layers of cloth, to strengthen the material. The sheets are fed through a press that applies a latex adhesive and attaches the cloth. Material for a cheaper ball will receive a two-layer backing. A sturdier, more expensive ball will have four layers of cloth attached.

Cutting the panels

• 2 After the adhesive is fully dried, the sheets of synthetic leather are passed to a die-cutting machine. Workers load the cloth into the die cutter, which cuts the hexagonal panels and also punches the stitch holes.

Imprinting the panels

• 3 Some of the cut panels are next taken to a screening area. Workers silkscreen the panels individually, imprinting them with the manufacturer's logo. This is done with a specially fast-drying paint.

Making the bladder

• 4 The bladder can be made from either natural or synthetic rubber. The raw material is gently heated and forced into a mold, where it forms a balloon. As the material cools, it wrinkles. Next, workers remove the bladders and partially inflate them to smooth them out.

Stitching and final assembly

• 5 Now the balls are ready to be assembled. The 32 panels and the bladder are packed in a kit for the stitcher. The stitcher uses a pattern to guide him or her in assembling the panels in the proper order. The stitcher sews the panels together by hand.
• 6 When the cover is sewed, the stitcher inserts the bladder and sews the final seams. The ball is complete. In order to ensure that the bladder has not been punctured by a needle during stitching, a worker pumps up the ball. The ball may also be weighed and measured at this point. Then, the finished ball is deflated again and packed for shipping.

Quality Control

The soccer ball is inspected at many points in its assembly. The bladders are checked as they are removed from the molds. The covering material is checked after it is lined with the backing material. Another important quality checkpoint is the silkscreen printing. The printed panels are visually inspected, and any faulty ones removed. After the ball is stitched together, an inspector looks it over carefully to see that no stitches have been missed. The bladder is inflated and the ball weighed and measured before the ball is passed on to the shipping area.