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[[File:Football Pallo valmiina-cropped.jpg|thumb|right|170px|[[Adidas Telstar]]-style ball, with the familiar black and white [[Truncated icosahedron#Spherical|spherical truncated icosahedron]] pattern, introduced in 1970]]
A '''football''' (also known as '''football ball''', '''soccer ball''', or '''association football''' '''ball''' specifically in the [[United Kingdom]]) is the [[ball]] used in the sport of [[association football]]. The name of the ball varies according to [[Names for association football|whether the sport is called]] "football", "soccer", or "association football". The ball's spherical shape, as well as its size, weight, and material composition, are specified by Law 2 of the [[Laws of the Game (association football)|Laws of the Game]] maintained by the [[International Football Association Board]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mazhar |first1=Talha |title=citation |url=https://www.fifa.com/legal/documents |website=https://www.fifa.com/ |publisher=Fifa}}</ref> Additional, more stringent standards are specified by [[FIFA]] and subordinate governing bodies for the balls used in the competitions they sanction.
Early footballs began as animal bladders or stomachs that would easily fall apart if kicked too much. Improvements became possible in the 19th century with the introduction of rubber and discoveries of vulcanization by [[Charles Goodyear]]. The modern 32-panel ball design was developed in 1962 by [[Eigil Nielsen (footballer, born 1918)|Eigil Nielsen]], and technological research continues to develop footballs with improved performance. The 32-panel ball design was soon joined by 24-panel balls as well as 42-panel balls, both of which improved on performance prior to 2007.{{citation needed|date=October 2018}}
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