A breakthrough came in the mid 1800s with the invention of fifa 14 coins xbox an india rubber bladder, and a pump with which to inflate it, meaning that the roundness of the ball could for the first time be guaranteed. In 1872, England's Football Association laid down the first guidelines, stating that a football should be spherical, with a circumference of 68 centimetres, cased in leather, and weigh between 396 and 453 grams at the start of play. The mention of its weight at the kick off was an important distinction as these early footballs had a propensity to absorb water, often more than doubling in weight during the course of a match.

Combined with the laces that were required to hold them together, this made the task of heading decidedly hazardous, with concussions a common occurrence. Regional variations also persisted, with the first ever FIFA World Cup? final in 1930 a case in point. Argentina and Uruguay had both brought their own balls and there was an impassioned pre match argument over which should be used. The compromise? Argentina's ball was used in the first half and Uruguay's in the second, with that change at the interval perhaps crucial in La Celeste turning a 2 1 half time deficit into a historic 4 2 triumph. The ball also emerged as a factor in the 1934 final, when Italy 1 0 down to Czechoslovakia with eight minutes remaining equalised through a Raimundo Orsi shot that swerved wildly beyond the goalkeeper's grasp.

Gli Azzurri went on to win the cup, and the following day Orsi attempted 20 times to repeat his ball bending trick for the assembled photographers failing every time! Distortion of the ball's shape was not uncommon at advanced stages of matches and could have been crucial to the trajectory of Orsi's fateful strike. Adidas began supplying balls for FIFA tournaments in 1970, beginning with the iconic ‘Telstar', and though still leather, a crucial www.fifa14store.co.uk advancement was these balls were coated with a special polyurethane to eliminate water absorption.