Telstar (ball)

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The 1970 World Cup Adidas Telstar

A truncated icosahedron compared to a plain Telstar-like ball

The 1974 Telstar

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.

It was the first World Cup ball to use the truncated icosahedron for it's design, consisting of 12 black pentagonal and 20 white hexagonal panels, which since became the quintessential design of a soccer football.

Although fully made of leather it still had some water resistant qualities provided by its shiny durlast coating.