Official FIFA 1970 World Cup ball in Mexico

Adidas Telstar model

Telstar, provided by Adidas, was the official match ball of 1970 FIFA World Cup and 1974 FIFA World Cup held in Mexico and West Germany. It was painted with black and white panels so it was more visible on black-and-white television, and hence its name which is short for television star. Telstar was also a series of TV satellites, providing intercontinental live coverage also of football games. Technically speaking this ball revolutionized the market because of its new sewing which was launched by Adidas. The ball consisted of 32 pentagon and hexagon panels instead of those long panels of its ancestor. This ball was more spherical than the old ones due to its new sewing. The Telstar name comes from the words Television and Star, because the boom phenomenom of television started in the 70's. Every day more people watched the TV in all over the world. Due to this mass phenomenom, Adidas called its first World Cup ball Telstar.