Around 40 million balls are exported from the country each year.
The official balls for every tournament since 1982 have been made in Sialkot, Pakistan, and many are stitched by hand. More than 100 years ago, locals in Sialkot started repairing balls as a hobby, and now around 40 million balls are exported from the country each year.
The craft takes months to master and skilled stitchers can complete roughly four balls a day. Stefan Bohrer / SWNS According to Forward Sports, who produced the World Cup ball this year for Adidas called the Trionda, 2026 is the largest ball quantity they have made in their history. The World Cup kicks off on June 11, and the ball will be kicked across Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Stefan Bohrer, who photographed the process of the balls being made, spoke to Talk to the Press: “The sheer scale of football production in Sialkot is astonishing. Knowing that around 300,000 balls leave these factories every day makes you pause and wonder where they all end up.
“Yet football is a truly global language. These balls will be kicked, shared, and celebrated by millions of people around the world, carrying with them“Standing there, watching this enormous production process, I realized that each ball is destined for a different story somewhere in the world – from a dusty street pitch to the next World Cup Champions. ”The balls undergo years of research and are tested numerous times to ensure they are game-ready.
Forward Sports first made a World Cup ball in 2014 for Brazil and it now has a separate research side of the company for match balls. Making the World Cup ball is even more regulated, with a new match ball taking three to four years to make. Thermo-technology is often used to ensure no water can get in and that its weight remains constant no matter the weather conditions.
Stefan Bohrer / SWNSThe football’s roundness, colors and preciseness of its seams must be perfect, especially to fit FIFA’s standards. Factories also contain cages where the footballs can be tested by firing them against a wall over and over again.
Typically, official match balls account for only a small part of production in Sialkot, and most balls which are made are used as training balls.other businessesYet the city fears Chinese manufacturers who could rapidly produce cheap copies of their balls and implement high security at their factories.
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