Engineering elite footballs through high quality research
Submitting Institution
Loughborough UniversityUnit of Assessment
Aeronautical, Mechanical, Chemical and Manufacturing EngineeringSummary Impact Type
EconomicResearch Subject Area(s)
Chemical Sciences: Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural)
Engineering: Interdisciplinary Engineering
Built Environment and Design: Design Practice and Management
Summary of the impact
Research by Loughborough University academics has influenced the
development of elite footballs
used in numerous global tournaments including FIFA World Cups, UEFA
European
Championships and Olympic Games. Research findings have led to increased
design freedoms
that have allowed adidas to produce balls with improved commercial appeal
resulting in a tenfold
increase in sales whilst maintaining product performance in line with the
highest certifiable level of
FIFA standards.
Underpinning research
Loughborough University, (LU), began applying engineering research to
sports products in 1985,
but it was the award of the SESAME grant (1999-2001) [G3.1] that
provided the platform from
which a multifaceted portfolio of expertise grew.
Analysis and mathematical modelling of hollow sports balls and their
performance emerged as a
key research theme through the PhDs completed by Cordingley (2002) and
Neilson (2003), both
supervised by Prof Roy Jones (LU, 1985-2011). Cordingley successfully
demonstrated the
potential for commercially available finite element analysis software to
model thin walled
pressurised spheres with homogenous material properties and simulate their
impact with rigid
surfaces. Concurrently, Neilson reported detail of the kicking
capabilities of elite footballers and
subsequently derived the in-service requirements for elite match balls in
a manner previously
unreported.
The EPSRC award of the Innovative Manufacturing and Construction Research
Centre to
Loughborough (2001-2006) [G3.2] supported further research by
Price (2005) [G3.2a], supervised
by Dr Andy Harland (LU, Lecturer 2001-2007, Senior lecturer 2007-present).
The work
demonstrated the influence of localised material anisotropy on ball
performance and proposed
methods to model its effects [3.1], thus avoiding the need for
expensive and lengthy prototyping,
as well as proposing strategies for alignment of the constituent woven
material panel layers that
overcome unwanted bounce irregularity.
With the increase in complexity of designs and the enhanced scrutiny of
players and the media,
substantive research questions were identified within the field of ball
aerodynamics. Expertise
developed through the aerodynamic study of bluff bodies [3.2] and
the design and build of a £2M
wind tunnel at Loughborough, brought Dr Martin Passmore (LU, Research
Associate 1984-1991,
Lecturer 1991-2001, Senior lecturer 2001-present) into the team and
resulted in a detailed study of
spinning and non-spinning ball performance [G3.2b] [3.3]
(2004-2005).
As this research began to be applied to ball design through collaboration
with leading
manufacturers, including adidas, the exposure of academic staff to more
advanced applied
research questions led to further studies. The first of these related to
the interactions between the
outer layers of the ball and the various other surfaces involved in the
game. Cotton (2008) was
awarded an LU PhD for his thesis concerned with experimental and
mathematical modelling of the
role of surface texture on these deformable outer layers on the grip,
stick and roll of the ball in a
range of environmental conditions (2004-2007) [G3.2c], which
proposed designs to overcome the
inconsistencies found in previous balls.
Rogers (2011) was awarded an LU PhD for research relating surface panel
and seam geometry to
aerodynamic ball performance following a four year programme of research
supervised by Drs
Harland and Passmore [G3.3] [3.4]. Concurrently, Dr Simon Tuplin
(LU, Research Associate 2002 - present)
[G3.4, G3.5, G3.6] developed fast and effective experimental and
flight simulation
analysis tools to support the performance characterisation of real and
rapid prototyped ball designs
during product development stages, published in response to an invitation
from the editor of a
special edition of the Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology [3.5].
Dr Passmore was also
invited to present this work as a keynote address at the World Congress on
Science & Football
(WCSF), Japan 2011.
In recognition of expertise in ball design, construction and performance
analysis, Dr Harland was
engaged as a consultant during the conceptual design stage of the ball to
be used for the World
Cup in 2010. This resulted in a patent [3.6] that covered the
inclusion of grooves within panels to
mimic the role of panel seams in providing aerodynamic stability which
were included throughout
the range of footballs produced for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
References to the research
3.1 Price, D.S., Jones, R. and Harland, A.R., ''Soccer Ball Anisotropy
Modelling'', Materials
Science and Engineering A, Structural Materials: Properties,
Microstructure and
Processing, 420(1-2), March 2006, 100-108, ISSN
0921-5093. DOI:
10.1016/j.msea.2006.01.079. Impact factor: 2.11
3.2 Passmore, M, Richardson, S., Imam, A. "An experimental study of
unsteady vehicle
aerodynamics", 2001, Proceedings of the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers, Part D:
Journal of Automobile Engineering 215(7), 779-788, DOI:
10.1243/0954407011528365.
Impact factor: 0.58
3.3 Passmore MA, Tuplin S, Spencer A, Jones R, Experimental studies of
the aerodynamics
of spinning and stationary footballs. Proceedings of the
Institution of Mechanical
Engineers. Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, IMechE
ISSN 0954-4062,
Vol 222 2008. DOI: 10.1243/09544062JMES655. Impact factor: 0.63
3.4 Passmore, M, Rogers, D, Tuplin, S, Harland, A, Lucas, T, Holmes, C
(2012) The aerodynamic
performance of a range of FIFA-approved footballs, Proceedings of the
Institution of
Mechanical Engineers, Part P: Journal of Sports Engineering and
Technology, 226(1), 61-70,
ISSN: 1754-3371. DOI: 10.1177/1754337111415768. Impact factor: 0.62
3.5 Tuplin, S, Passmore, M, Rogers, D, Harland, AR, Lucas, T, Holmes, C
(2012) The application
of simulation to the understanding of football flight, Proceedings of
the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers, Part P: Journal of Sports Engineering and
Technology, 226, 134-142,
DOI: 10.1177/1754337112444402. Impact factor: 0.62
3.6 World Cup Ball Patent: Nuernberg, H. —. P., Gordon, J. R., Lucas, T.
D., van Oorschot, J.,
Geyer, H., & Harland, A. R. (2009). Ball with pseudo seams.
Application number
EP20100155323 (03/04/2009).
Research grants:
G3.1 R Jones, S Mitchell, D Kerwin, S Rothberg, The SESAME laboratory:
The key to unlocking
the UK's future sport engineering excellence, EPSRC (GR/M54407/01)
September 1999 - September
2001, £512,151
G3.2 IMCRC GRANT: C Backhouse, S Newman, S Rahimifard, P Palmer, M
Jackson, P Dickens,
P Conway, R Harrison, Dr D Hutt, S Mitchell, K Case, A West, R Young, R
Parkin, S Rothberg,
R Jones, M Caine, K Walsh, N Burns, A Thorpe, A centre for innovative
manufacturing and
construction research Total IMCRC grant, EPSRC (GR/R64483/01),
£11,350,001, October
2001 - September 2006, from which specific allocations:
G3.2a A Harland, R Jones, Advanced modelling of soccer balls, EPSRC
(IMCRC) £104,424,and
adidas £45,890, July 2002 - June 2005
G3.2b R Jones, M Passmore, A Spencer, Aerodynamics of Sports Balls, EPSRC
(IMCRC)
£49,703, March 2004 - February 2005
G3.2c A Harland, R Jones, Soccer Ball Surface Interactions, EPSRC (IMCRC)
£3,790 and adidas
£30,000, October 2004 - September 2007
G3.3 A Harland, M Passmore, R Jones, Analysis of surface features
influencing aerodynamics of
ball flight, adidas £45,000, April 2007 - March 2011
G3.4 A Harland, M Passmore, Experimental Aerodynamics of Footballs 1,
adidas £36,000,
March 2009 - February 2010
G3.5 A Harland, M Passmore, Experimental Aerodynamics of Footballs 2,
adidas £16,500,
March 2010 - August 2010
G3.6 A Harland, M Passmore, Experimental Aerodynamics of Footballs 3,
adidas £16,500,
September 2010 - February 2011
• Evidence for the quality of the research undertaken may be found from
the outputs in which the
work was published, which are the leading journals for researchers
publishing in this field, and
the number of invited and Keynote lectures presented by the investigators,
the latter including:
Prof Jones Keynote Lecture, World Congress on Science & Football
(WCSF), Turkey, January
2007
• Dr Harland Invited Lecture, BA Festival of Science, York, September
2007
• Dr Harland Invited Lecture, VUB Crosstalks, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
(VUB), Université Libre de
Bruxelles (ULB) and the Belgian Sports Technology Club (BSTC), Sep 2011
• Dr Passmore Keynote Lecture, World Congress on Science & Football
(WCSF), Japan 2011.
Dr Harland and Dr Passmore were also invited to form the inaugural FIFA
flight dynamics technical
committee, together with colleagues from MIT, NASA and Technical
University of Munich,
November 2013.
Details of the impact
The balls used in elite professional football have been required to
satisfy performance standards
laid down by the FIFA Quality Concept since 1995. Therefore, in order for
football brands and
manufacturers to improve the commercial success of their products, they
must enhance areas
other than performance, since this is constrained. Until 2002, the
potential for brands to
fundamentally improve the consumer appeal of footballs was inherently
limited by the
manufacturing process. The research carried out at Loughborough has
realised a greater
understanding of the relationship between ball design and performance,
which has allowed adidas
to overcome these restrictions.
Given the restrictions on changing ball performance, the research was
instead used to identify and
inform those aspects of design and construction where modifications could
enhance the aesthetic
and tactile beauty of the ball for commercial advantage without
compromising performance.
The impact of the research carried out at Loughborough has been to ensure
that the new
manufacturing method achieved the following:
- Ensured that the inner carcass of the ball provided the appropriate
uniform structural rigidity
removing the need for outer panels to provide this function.
- Removed constraints of outer panel shapes such that they could be
designed around the
desired graphical imagery. This means that patterns are now able to
extend across panel
edges, where previously the imperfect alignment of conventional flat
panel assembly led to
misalignment that undermined the quality of appearance.
- Allowed outer panels to be manufactured from new materials that can be
assembled without
unevenly straining during inflation, meaning the ball is more spherical
and has improved tactile
feel.
- Maintained ball flight performance through the conception and
implementation of aero-grooves,
where increased outer panels sizes introduced for commercial advantage
had potential to
detrimentally affect ball aerodynamics
These advantages have been realised sequentially by adidas in major
tournament footballs. The
Teamgeist ball used in the 2006 World Cup was the first to include
the new carcass and curved
panels whilst satisfying all FIFA Quality standards to the highest
certifiable level. It was
commercially successful, returning sales of 15 million units compared to 2
million sold in 2002
[5.1].
In 2008, the research reported in Cotton's PhD thesis (2008) led directly
to the inclusion of a
surface texture on the Europass ball used in the UEFA Euro 2008
tournament.
For the 2010 Jabulani ball, Loughborough research [3.3,3.4,3.5]
led directly to the inclusion of
aero-grooves on the surface that were designed to maintain flight
stability; they are protected by a
patent [3.6] on which Dr Harland is named as co-author. In
addition to the tournaments mentioned,
derivatives of these balls have also been used for Olympics, Champions
League and various
national leagues around the world.
The success of this approach has led to ball patterns influencing design
themes across clothing,
stadia and media throughout each tournament. Therefore the consequential
impact of this research
is likely to be greater than that claimed, but is difficult to
substantiate.
Sales figures of major tournament footballs are highly sensitive and not
made public due to the
nature of the sponsorship agreements between brands and tournament
organisers, with adidas
reported to be paying $351 million to FIFA for the 2010 and 2014 World Cup
tournaments alone.
As a result sales figures are collated from media reports and press
releases but indicate that
during the period of Loughborough's research, sales of the adidas match
balls and their replicas
have increased tenfold — from two million in 2002 to an estimated 20
million in 2010 [5.1,5.2]. The
2010 World Cup made a significant contribution to adidas revenues, with
the relevant financial
quarter in 2010 generating $3.47B, more than $0.58B higher than the $2.89B
generated in the
equivalent quarter in 2009 [5.3]. These gains have been supported
by the raised awareness of
engineering innovation achieved via media coverage of the tournament —
more than 2.2 billion
people watched more than 20 continuous minutes of TV coverage during the
2010 tournament
[5.4] — and specific coverage of the research. Dr Harland completed
more than 60 interviews with
international broadcasters, including ESPN, BBC and CNN, resulting in
coverage totalling more
than £1M in AVE (Advertising Value Equivalent). This engagement extended
across hard to reach
demographics, such as the ~5 million young people who consciously chose to
engage with
technical films and information on the adidas Facebook site [5.5].
In summary, the research cited in this case study has resulted in a step
change in the commercial
success of a significant product in a global sport leading to huge
economic benefits for a
multinational company.
Sources to corroborate the impact
The following sources of corroboration can be made available at request.
Research Users
5.1 Letter of Support from the Engineering Director, adidas AG covering
the impact of the
research and key ball sales figures.
Press Releases
5.2 adidas-Group Press Release: 2010 FIFA World CupTM already sales
success for adidas,
June 21, 2010 [Ball sales volumes]
5.3 adidas-Group Press Release: Nine Months 2010 Results, Herzogenaurach,
November 4, 2010
[financial performance data]
5.4 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, Television Audience Report,
Produced for FIFA TV by
KantarSport [TV audience data]
Social Media
5.5 adidas-football facebook page, accessed various dates from 2010 [social
media reach]