Adidas’ Trionda is the official match ball at this summer’s FIFA World Cup and is a fully “smart” — or, as Adidas puts it, “connected” — ball that can transmit a record amount of near-instantaneous data, assist in offside decisions and provide more statistical insights than many teams or fans can reasonably use, according to ESPN.
More than a dozen connected balls are prepared for each match so one can replace another when play sends a ball out of bounds. Every ball is charged in a wireless docking station ahead of time; a ball at 0% needs about 2½ hours to reach full charge and is designed to last up to six hours. Balls conserve power by entering a “hibernation” mode while on the sidelines, and a staff member monitors each ball’s charge on a central screen, according to ESPN.
Adidas says it has not experienced a ball running out of charge during previous test uses. Tor Southard, Adidas’ vice president of performance and operations, said the company set technical “guardrails” based on maximum game length and weather conditions and built in “lots of fail-safes in terms of the number of balls held in reserve and ready to go.”
The Trionda’s internal technology represents an advancement over the match ball used at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The new chip is embedded in the sidewall of one of the ball’s four panels, rather than mounted in the center of the bladder, and required counterweighting to avoid affecting balance and aerodynamics. Adidas conducted more than 300 lab tests with the chip installed to ensure the ball’s feel, rotation and spin matched non-chip versions.
The connected ball has already had a visible impact on officiating: in the Sweden-Tunisia match, data from the Trionda helped overturn an offside call when it showed a slight touch from another Sweden player touched the scorer. Adidas also ensures non-connected balls used in training and sold to consumers perform identically to the match ball, and, according to a team source, most American players have not publicly commented on the ball.
