Jabulani Ball

NEW! April 20th, 2010 saw the launch of JO'BULANI - the World Cup Final matchball. Built with the same advanced construction as the Jabulani, the Jobulani ball has a golden colour scheme to match the trophy, and in homage to the "City of Gold" - Johannesburg, where the Final will be held - the date - July 11th 2010. It is available now in a full-quality replica on Soccer.com

About the ball
Jabulani - meaning 'to Celebrate' in the isiZulu language - is the name of the new ball for the FIFA World Cup 2010™.
Made, as ever, by Adidas - the world's leading Football equipment manufacturer, the Jabulani ball builds on their years of scientific excellence. With their history of official FIFA World Cup balls (from Telstar to Teamgeist™) the balls have improved year on year, though not without attracting some controversy along the way.
Regular balls are made with 32 hexagonal panels. The Teamgeist for World Cup in Germany 2006 had only 14 panels. The Jabilani ball has an amazing 8 panels.
Goalies will be happy with the 'grip n groove' texturing, which is also to aid smooth flight (think golfballs).
It is a heavy ball, and has bonded 3d panels - moulded spherically to retain shape and create a seamless spehere.
The number 11 carries heavy symbolism - the tribes of South Africa, the players in a football team. In honour ofthis, there are 11 colours used on the ball.

Construction

 

FIFA Standards / Jabulani Ball Stats

Feature	FIFA Reg.	Jabulini	Standing
Weight	420-445	440/td>	Heavy
Circumference	68.5-69.5cm	69.0 +/- 0.2	Average
Roundness	1.5% Variance	1.0%	Good
Water Absorption	Max 10%	0%	Amazing
Bounce Variance	10cm	6cm	Good
Leakage	20% from 3 days	10%	Excellent

This table shows that the moulding technique means the ball retains its shape, and the lack of seaming means there is essentially zero water retention, which will reduce sluggishness of the ball if South Africa defies the odds and rains throughout the World Cup
The weight is interesting - being towards the higher end of the allowed scale means the flight will be truer and more predictable making keepers happy, but also rewarding accuracy for strikers.