Since 2006/07 there has been an official adidas match ball used at every UEFA Champions League fixture throughout the season. The Europa League also has its own specially designed ball, previously made by adidas but now produced by Molten since 2018.

In this ground-breaking tournament, adidas will celebrate football – and sport – as something that can bring the world together," said Florian Alt, vice-president of brand marketing at adidas.

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To mark the 60th anniversary of the UEFA EURO, next summer's finals will be played in 12 different European countries and the tournament's fresh format is the inspiration for the official match ball. It was not until 1 January 1996 that UEFA implemented FIFA-endorsed quality controls for the balls used in international competitions. Footballs were then divided into three quality groups: FIFA-approved, FIFA-inspected, and International Matchball Standard.

His outfield team-mate, Robinho, wasn’t impressed either. “For sure the guy who designed this ball never played football. But there is nothing we can do. We have to play with it.” Match balls can often be as closely associated with football tournaments as anything that happens on the pitch.Before that, it was common practice for away teams to spend the days leading up to a match training with the ball used by their opponent. If, of course, they could find out what it was. Slight variations in those early designs survived into the television era, though white balls had been trialled as early as 1951, with orange balls also used the same year for matches taking place in snowy conditions. At EUROs, the first truly significant design change since the 1980s came in 2004: this was the introduction of the first seamless ball, the Roteiro, for the finals in Portugal. Between these two extremes are almost 60 years of man-made ingenuity. The transformation in ball technology since adidas produced the first tournament ball, the Telstar, has been remarkable, and so too its impact on the game itself. From the Telstar and Tango through the first entirely non-leather designs of the mid-80s to the products we see today, footballs have grown ever lighter and faster.