What is the 'Jabulani'

'Jabulani' is the name given by Adidas and FIFA to the official matchball for the World Cup 2012 in South Africa

What is so special about the FIFA World cup Ball 'Jabulani'

See our main page. The primary thing is it's the first ball to be moulded in a sphere, to maximise shape retention.

Is this better than the World Cup 2006 ball - the Teamgeist?

  Teamgeist had 14 panels - this was revolutionary at the time and was the basis for the running joke that Adidas made the 'roundest ever ball'. As you can see from this diagram, Jabulani takes that one step further - with just 8 polyurethane panels that arespherically moulded surrounding a latex bladder, this truly is the 'roundest ever football'.

Is there a cheaper version of the Jabulani

Yes - there's an Training ball that Adidas make for about 1/3 the price of the World Cup ball.
It has the same appearance, but this may not have all the features of the official match ball. You can buy it at Soccer.com

"Where can I buy the Jabulani Ball?"

Many suppliers will be carrying it, but prices are often more reasonable at Soccer.com

Will they be using Goal-Line technology at the World Cup in South Africa?

There has been a lot of controversy about goalline detection recently. Some see it as the panacea that will solve all perceived 'unfairness' in football, but as the recent Thierry Henry incident showed it's not just about crossing the line.

With the construction method used in the Jabalani ball, it would be possible to do similar to the tech embedded in the Teamgeist for previous experiments (see photo), but even with their penchant for last-minute changes to structures, this is far too late in the day to introduce what is still basically untested technology.

Where is it made?

Asia