Adidas Finale

Adidas Finale used in the2020–21 UEFA Champions League group stage and theplay-off round as well asWomen's Champions League group stage.[1] The knockout stage and the final have their own designs.
Type	Football
Inception	2000; 26 years ago (2000)
Manufacturer	Adidas
Available	Yes

TheAdidas Finale is a brand offootball made byAdidas. It is the current official football of themen's andwomen's UEFA Champions Leagues; after Adidas took over the contract of official supplier fromNike in 2000. The internal and external design of the ball changes reflecting improvements to football technologies taken from other Adidas-produced footballs. The external design is the "Starball" based on the stars of the UEFA Champions League and Women's Champions League logo.^[2] Each year's ball keeps the branding name ofAdidas Finale, exceptingsuffixes to designate the year.

During its introduction the Adidas Finale was only used in the latter stages of Champions League competition; it was not uncommon to see other balls in the early rounds, usually provided by the kit manufacturer or the ball supplier for the domestic league of the home team, including other Adidas balls. However, from 2006–07, the Adidas Finale had been used in all stages of the competition, including the play-off round which was introduced in 2009–10 followed with the group stages. The balls can also be seen in other UEFA competitions. These balls are also occasionally used in theUEFA Women's Champions League with similar graphics. During the start of 2024–27 cycle, the Adidas Finale is now used for competition proper such as play-off rounds and league phase.

Lionel Messi ofFC Barcelona in action with the Adidas Finale in the2010–11 UEFA Champions League

Karim Benzema ofReal Madrid training with a high-visibility variant of the Finale in February 2012

The ball is made byAdidas as the German brand took over the contract fromNike in 2000, and was firstly developed based on the Adidas Terrestra Silverstream, the officialmatch ball of theUEFA Euro 2000 in theNetherlands andBelgium. This ball was also made with the same type of materials and construction used for theAdidas Fevernova, except, of course, the graphics.^[3]

The Finale ball incorporates a unique design that was inspired by the UEFA Champions League "starball" logo. The Finale is softer, faster, and more accurate than any other Adidas football before and it also features a layer of highly compressed, gas-filled micro-balloons of equal size (syntactic foam), proven during Euro 2000 and probably contributing to one of the highest average goal rates in a major tournament.^[3]

Until the final of the 2005–06 season, the Finale used the traditionaltruncated icosahedron panel design for their balls. From then on the panels are the same as theAdidas Teamgeist ball. From 2004–05, the ball structure was the same as theAdidas Roteiro balls used forUEFA Euro 2004, which had thermally bonded panels.

Since the2010 final, the panels took the shape of the competition's starball logo.^[4] The panels design has been revised in 2019, previously connected on the edges, the panels now overlap to improve durability.^[5]

Each season in the Champions League, the colour of the stars on the ball is changed. The first ball, in 2000–01 was silver, followed by black in 2001–02, then dark blue in 2003–04, and red in 2004–05. This was followed by light blue in 2005–06. The design for next season's ball was used in this season's final. A light blue ball was used for most of the 2005–06 season, but in the final betweenArsenal andFC Barcelona, held in theStade de France,Paris it was replaced by a ball with the same paneling as theAdidas +Teamgeist but decorated with pink stars. For the 2006–07 season, the ball had grey stars trimmed in red and white and the FinaleAthens ball is a chrome silver metallic with royal blue and white. For the 2007–08 season, the ball was decorated in tangerine orange and black stars with grey trim. For the final of the 2007–08 season inMoscow, the ball was gray and red stars with a gold trim, while the ball's paneling was still same with +Teamgeist, but with PSC-Texture which based onAdidas Europass. The match ball used for the 2008–09 season was black and white with a green trim. For 2009–10, the starball's based panels was being used.

Each match ball intended for use in the final is marked with the location at which the final match is to be played. For example, the 2004–05 Champions League final was held inIstanbul,Turkey and as such, the blue/silver-starred Finale balls were marked with Istanbul.

From2006–07 to2010–11, the Champions League holder played with the match ball used in the previous final in their home games. Since2011–12, the final ball has been used from the round of 16, with the title holders using the regular ball in their home group stage games.^[6]

These official match balls are well prized. The UEFA Champions League is thought to be the most prestigious club competition and the ball itself has a very unusual design which makes the ball unique,FIFA Approved with highest rating, and fairly cherishable.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toAdidas Finale.

• Adidas FinaleArchived 2011-01-03 at theWayback Machine on Soccer Ball World

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