In Search of the Perfect Football

Well it is June on an even year and that means that everyone's thoughts (or at least mine) turn to football. By that I mean the "beautiful game", the "real" thing i.e. soccer. My mission this month was to somehow connect this column with World Cup. It was a bit of a challenge to find the right angle, however, given that it consumes the Vurdela household for a full month, it had to be done.

That being the case, let's talk footballs. Not any footballs but FIFA approved footballs. For those that are not fans, FIFA is the international federation that governs the sport. Quoting from the FIFA website, the concept is that "…a football should respond in the very same way every time it is struck, whether it is in the 90th minute of a match or straight from the first kick-off. Otherwise, it would be unfair on the players and frustrating for the fans."

The site goes on to describe the quality characteristics, specifically circumference, size, roundness, rebound, water absorption and loss of pressure and two grades FIFA Inspected and FIFA Approved. The latter including a seventh test for shape and size retention. The site goes on to describe the licensing structure for the program. Similar to a CE or CSA approval, the product is tested by the licensor, 7 samples for the Inspected category and 10 samples for the more rigorous Approved category. Along with this goes a testing and royalty fee to maintain the marking as well as a commitment to ensure that the product is free of child labour at any stage of manufacture. Multiply this by the technology invested in boots and you are either awestruck or bored to tears. For those that are the former, all three of you, you are my core audience and thanks for your support and good luck with your application to Adidas. For the rest of you, I guess I do need a point of some sort and product quality assurance programs won't cut it.

For that point allow me one more statistic; according to ESPN, their 2006 World Cup audience totaled approximately 26 billion and they believe that will be exceeded this June.

Clearly technology and quality consistency are important, however, 26 billion don't tune in for the balls or cleats you say? Well this is absolutely true. They tune in for the love of the game, national pride and a whole host of other reasons. However if you happen to be a manufacturer of equipment to a sport that has no commercials during the game, you really want to be the manufacturer of use. For example, Adidas with their Jabulani ball (Zulu for Celebration). Given that their 2006 offering sold approximately 15 million units, celebration is probably an accurate name. Or Nike with their Tiempo boots, if you are watching the games you will recognize their distinctive orange and purple design on 2 out of 3 footballers. Soon you will see the same on 3 out of every 4 youth and adult players.

So I agree, sometimes the standard Quality fair of technology and consistency can be a little dry, however, it has always been and will continue to be at the core of competitive advantage, regardless of what we build around it to "sexy it up".