Football News - adidas Roma Champions League Final Ball Revealed! 16/03/09
All roads lead to Rome... following the release last week of a triple header of adidas Rome football boots, here is the match ball that will be used for the climax of the "World's Greatest Club Competition" - the adidas Finale Roma Football for the UEFA Champions League Final on May 27th, 2009.
So what's different with the Finale Roma? As you may have guessed, the design is based on the UEFA Champions League star logo and as is now tradition with adidas' football releases, both the colours and details of the new match ball are inspired by host venue.
A traditional Roman colour burgundy is lined with gold detailing around the stars, whilst mosaic figures from key sporting and Roman values such as speed, teamwork, justice and power feature in each star - all designed to honour the biggest night in European club football.
Like the Europass football that came before it, the adidas Finale Roma uses the same surface, excitingly named "PSC-Texture". This surface structure "allows players to control and direct the ball perfectly in all weather conditions and consists of a sophisticated and extremely fine structure on the ball's outer skin that guarantees optimum grip between ball and boot."
Perhaps the easiest way to describe this is to liken the ball's surface and texture to thousands of tiny goose bumps, designed to give this extra grip and longer ball contact. The Finale Roma is constructed from 14 panels using "revolutionary Thermal Bonding Technology" which removes the need for seams and stitching - great for prolonging the life of your football!
As the authority on all things football, here at the SoccerBible we've already had a good kick around with the ball before it makes it's debut in Rome. From our short play test we noticed immediately that the ball certainly has enough presence and is very direct - just as a top level match ball should be! Our SoccerBible test kickers also reported that their passes were just as accurate and they could easily get loads of power into shots, as well as plenty of swerve for wall-defying curlers - all adding up to make this ball a goalkeeper's nightmare!
The adidas Finale Roma is available to purchase from 1st April, and we expect this to retail around £75 GBP. As with last year's Final football, the winners of the 2008/09 Champions League have the exclusive use of the ball in their home matches the following season - a nice bonus along with the title of Champions of Europe!
Did you know?
adidas has supplied the official match balls to all major UEFA and FIFA tournaments since 1970, and since 2008 they are also the Official Supplier of the match ball for the Africa Cup of Nations - check out some other adidas footballs here!
