Is anyone familiar with why the official Nike EPL ball has been switched to yellow from white in recent weeks? Does it have anything to do with visibility or anything like that?
exactly that. They've been using a yellow ball during the winter in the football league for a number of years now. Tests have proven that the eye is supposed to see it a fraction of a second quicker - which would be really useful if players were standing around looking in random directions and then reacted when it entered their field of vision. It looks horrible too. Am I still strangely annoyed than in 18 years of watching football, I've yet to attend a match where they've had to use the orange ball. The wimps today won't play if there's a bit of snow.
I have seen the orange ball in Germany and CL games in Scandinavia. I think the yellow ball is a marketing ploy by the Nike-sters to respond to the Adidas Fevernova.
I saw a piece about the yellow ball on the EPL show on FSW a few weeks back. the yellow along with the dark colored stripes make it easier to see against the grass and the sky simultaneously. The pattern of the dark stripes are such that the goalkeeper can get an accurate view of the spinning motion. I like it. It's much easier to follow as I watch Cahill, Bent and the rest of Everton kick AZZ in the EPL this year !!!
Nike has actually done an incredible amount of research regarding what would be the optimal colors for soccer balls. They apparently worked with a few world-reknowned people in the field of opthamology or optics when determining what colors show up best in very bright conditions and very dark conditions. That's why you get the two drastically different colors...almost day-glo yellow and a vibrant but deep blue. Apparently, the combination enables the eye to pick up the ball quicker in sub-optimal lighting...making it a more effective color scheme for fast paced games in darker or very bright conditions. There is science behind the decision...it's not just a marketing ploy.
It is easier to see. Considering that from November til April, there are only 3 days of sunshine, it is needed
The orange ball made a apperance last year in a Uefa cup game with a no - name team agasint Inter Milan with Fc Inter on the losing side.
They used it for the US Jamaica WCQ last week. It might be different on field but on TV it was difficult at times to pick up the ball against the Reggae Boyz neon yellow jerseys.
On darker days, when rainy and such, the yellow ball is much easier to pick up. This is why it was used in the US-Jam WCQ a few weeks ago, and why EPL is using it. I had a yellow ball when I was younger, and loved it.
I worried about that at the beginning of the match, but as it turned out, I had no problem seeing it at all. Lee