The State of Soccer Ball Sponsors

Though the Major League Soccer season ended not even a week ago, the league has wasted no time looking ahead to next year. Partnering up with long-time sponsor Adidas, MLS has announced their new official match ball for the 2015 season. Called the NATIVO, it will feature the six identically shaped panels, continuing the move away from traditional pentagonal or hexagonal designs.

Sponsoring leagues and competitions with match balls is a well-trodden road for Adidas, as they also use a new ball for the Women’s World Cup 2015 as well as Euro 2016 qualifiers. Competition is rife among Adidas and Nike for official match balls, or OMBs, and both companies are eager to put their respective designs on the field. Nike holds an edge in number of leagues — though many countries and leagues aren’t listed of course — in Europe, including inarguably the two best, Premier and La Liga.

	Premier League	La Liga	Serie A	Ligue 1	Bundesliga	MLS
Nike	Ordem	Ordem	Ordem
Adidas				Pro Ligue 1	TORFABRIK	NATIVO

For international leagues both at the county and club level, Adidas has locked up OMB status in a clean sweep, though Nike does sponsor the 2015 Asian Football Cup 15 with their new Ordem 2.

	Men’s World Cup	Women’s World Cup	Euro 2016 Qual	UEFA Champions	UEFA Europa	Africa Cup of Nations
Nike
Adidas	Brazuca	conext 15	Euro 2016	Finale 14	Brazuca	Marhaba

Between 12-panel vs six-panel designs to the thermal-bonding or fuse-welded discussion, there is no shortage of differences of balls in league matches. Factor in the chance for a player to potentially use three different balls in a 12-day period — league fixture, UEFA and national team call up — the lack of standardization is odd. It isn’t a question of quality, merely continuity. The old saying “different strokes for different folks” rings true in many aspects, but when millions of people (not to mention millions of dollars) are involved in these matches, perhaps the saying “can’t we all just get along?” would be better.

(Header image via Facebook)