Top 10 Complaints About The Adidas Jabulani World Cup Match Ball

Ollie Irish

2nd, June 2010

34 Comments

By Ollie Irish

The evil Jabulani

Well, they say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but a host of World Cup stars are doing their best to deflate the Adidas Jabulani official match ball…

“The ball is dreadful. It’s horrible, but it’s horrible for everyone.” – David James (England, goalkeeper)

“The ball is a problem. You can’t anticipate which direction it is going to go in. It is difficult for defenders to deal with and you can’t take your eye off the ball until the very last second.” – Marcus Tulio Tanaka (Japan, defender)

“The new ball is not decent, not just for goalkeepers but for everyone. Its trajectory is unpredictable.” – Gigi Buffon (Italy, goalkeeper)

“It’s very weird. All of a sudden it changes trajectory on you. It’s like it doesn’t want to be kicked. It’s incredible, it’s like someone is guiding it. You are going to kick it and it moves out of the way. I think it’s supernatural, it’s very bad.” – Luis Fabiano (Brazil, forward)

“It’s like a beach ball.” – Claudio Bravo (Chile, goalkeeper)

“It’s terrible… like a ball you’d buy in a supermarket.” – Julio Cesar (Brazil, goalkeeper)

“Maybe they should stop trying to keep developing the ball and just change the look of it. The ball goes all over the place.” – Seigo Narazaki (Japan, goalkeeper)

“It’s a little sad that in a competition as big as the World Cup to have such a poor ball. It’s not just the goalkeepers complaining, but the outfield players as well.” – Iker Casillas (Spain, goalkeeper)

“It’s a catastrophe. I played with many different balls, some of which wiggled or changed directions, but this one is the worst of them all.” – Vladimir Stojkovic (Serbia, goalkeeper)

“It’s a disaster… It moves so much and makes it difficult to control. You jump up to head a cross and suddenly the ball will move and you miss it!” – Giampaolo Pazzini (Italy, forward)

Nothing new here, and lots of goalkeepers moaning as always, but it does seem the Jabulani has come in for more criticism than previous World Cup balls.

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Posted in Featured, Top 10s & lists, World Cup

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34 Comments

  1. Chris says:

    It’s not often you get many outfield players complaining about the ball – it must be bloody awful!

  2. Every single player, who was interviewed yesterday after the defeat to Australia, complained about it as well. I think this one might actually be worse than previous ones. I don’t remember hearing such a unanimous vote of crapness before.

  3. That should have said “Every single DANISH player” :)

  4. DJ says:

    I don’t remember so many players complaining about it either, Julio Cesar’s comments about it being like a supermarket ball cracked me up. Like one of those 50p jobbies that come in white, blue and red with black pentagon’s on it. :)

    The only saving grace is it could make the World Cup unpredictable.

  5. Connor says:

    i prefer US goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann’s comments: “It’s horse s***.”

  6. spectator says:

    ‘it’s like a beach ball’ HA!

    maybe capello should have chosen Bent after all.

    if it ain’t broke don’t fix it comes to mind…

  7. Hirsty says:

    Notice not a single one of them is sponsored by adidas…

  8. Juancullo says:

    do these footballers not realise that its the altitude that it making the ball lighter and causing it to swerve unpredictbly!! i read that frank lampard loves the ball coz you can score from any range. It is a fact that a ball will travel further through thinner air found at high altitude, ie austria or guess where………..south africa!!

  9. […] you’d buy in a supermarket.” Also see: Official World Cup ball – Adidas Jabulani | Top 10 complaints about Adidas Jabulani. […]

  10. […] Julio Cesar (goalkeeper, Brazil): “It’s terrible… like a ball you’d buy in a supermarket.” Also see: Official World Cup ball – Adidas Jabulani | Top 10 complaints about Adidas Jabulani. […]

  11. ....... says:

    Goalies always complain about a new ball and need time to adjust to them,

  12. John says:

    FIFA should have used a handstitched ball made in Africa for this world cup. A charity called alive and kicking makes them

  13. Trent says:

    I think that it is a great having an unpredictable ball, it will lead to a more exiting world cup!

  14. Eric says:

    So far, the ball sucks, and it can be seen in actual WC group play now: sailing corner kicks that clear everyone; free kicks that clear the net by a good ten yards or more; a bewildering number of shots/passes who knows what they were that land out in the middle of nowhere. Yes, altitude plays a role, but not this much.

  15. Secret says:

    Well if you state that you are the best player in the world or amongst the best why cry about the ball… if you are so good then the ball should not matter.. and if there was no fault with the ball then there will be something else.

  16. […] game. Clint Dempsey(US) of Fulham fame, fired in a speculative shot from 30 yards or so and the notorious Jabulani (the name of the football developed by Adidas for this edition of the World Cup) […]

  17. Kerry Hyvarinen says:

    Noticed two things about the ball. Its pattern causes the ball fly strange and it never wants to gain loft after kicking the thing.

  18. jake says:

    the ball is brill is lovly to play with

  19. Kalum Wall says:

    The ball is good in germany and usa all played last season with it so its a good ball give it some change

  20. jake sexton says:

    the ball is good to play with the germans scored 4 goals austrailia and hollond scored 2 aganst denmark.

  21. James says:

    shocking ball, it’s ruining the world cup as a spectacle

  22. Jim says:

    does anyone disagree now that the ball is not shit? it’s ruined the entire tournament, every team is playing awful, making mistakes. many goalkeeper mistakes which are just not natural. only germany played well and thats because they had it for 6 months. chile have supposedly had it for a while too. but it’s defintely contributed to the fact its so low scoring.

  23. fergie says:

    the only players who apparently liked the ball were kaka, ballack (pre-injury obviously) and lampard (all of who are sponsored by adidas).

  24. […] Bummer if you are Adidas, especially as this probably includes people searching about info for a heavily branded and pretty dodgy ball. […]

  25. vivala says:

    I absolutely love this ball, It is an absolute pleasure to play with. It has the perfect weight where when you kick it, it doesn’t rip off your foot but when you are stopping it, it doesn’t bounce off very far. I believe it has elements for amazing control and dont find that it changes trajectory that much. I’m not a professional whatsoever, i’m sure you can tell but I found it ridiculously easy to get the hang of this ball. Nevertheless I think the more professional players should be able to adapt to whichever ball they’re given. After all, its the same ball for all of them. shouldnt take more than a week to get used to.

  26. Michael Moon says:

    The ball sails just like a tennis ball after the felt is worn off. The games are low-scoring because there has not been ONE direct free kick even ON-GOAL yet, much less in. The smooth outer surface does not break up the air flow, causing laminar flow, not turbulent as a seamed ball gives. Nobody can get off a good header because they cannot track the flight well enough to make solid contact. Most of the set plays fail because the ball flys oddly.
    Less scoring makes this sport even less entertaining to watch. Adidas blew this one massively, as did FIFA. Do the Germans have a huge advantage having used it for six months? Who does the US play next? Typical…

  27. Chris says:

    Sadly everything said about the ball seems to be true – I have never seen a world cup with so many balls off target by such great players. Corners fly way across the field – passes over hit and so few headed goals its almost impossible to believe.I cant help wondering what the casualty rate is for the spectators behind the goals ? One dead giveaway has got to be GERMANY – the only team who had 6 months to use the ball and have scored almost all their goals from coun terattack and close range. Personally I think the world was robbed of a great potential tournament by the greed of FIFA and the ineptitude of Adidas.

  28. spainCasillas says:

    It’s surprising how many shots are missed when the players know it flies up so aim low and the ball will still swerve left and right but won’t go up as much if u aim down. If strikers could figure this out and change their shot a little bit, than the keeper will have a real hard time stopping it I’m a keeper and I think itsvery fun to play with and it’s unpredictability makes it fun to use once you get use to it.

  29. lanre Adeyoola says:

    Notice every listed complaining player above comes from a team that has lost.

  30. […] two has been written about by many: it’s unpredictable in flight: “The ball is a problem. You can’t anticipate which direction it is going to go in. It is difficult for defenders to deal […]

  31. I think it would do well in the trash cos’ it’s Rm399.90 which is like a RM400 ball rolling on grass .pricing is shit

  32. carl says:

    its not just the flight its when the ball is on the ground players cant control it,i use to watch the mls and bundes liga but cant anymore because of that god dam ball

  33. […] their role. In case you were left confounded by all this, even the kind of boots players wear and ball they use affect their judgement and […]