Who has the biggest balls? FIFA, apparently.
The World Cup is almost here, and the official match ball has gone from being a simple piece of sporting equipment to something that feels like it belongs in a science fiction movie.
The 2026 World Cup ball is no longer just a ball. Hidden inside is a sensor that tracks movement hundreds of times per second, feeding data to AI systems that help officials make offside calls, detect deflections, and analyze game-changing moments with incredible precision.
In the latest episode of THE PROCESS, we take a look at how the World Cup ball is made, why the city of Sialkot in Pakistan produces most of the world’s soccer balls, how Adidas evolved from hand-stitched panels to thermal bonding technology, and why reducing the number of panels can actually change the way a ball flies through the air.
One of the most fascinating twists is that these high-tech balls are primarily manufactured at the Forward Sports factory in Sialkot, Pakistan, a country that has never qualified for a FIFA World Cup. Somehow, the nation that makes the ball still hasn’t had the chance to kick one on soccer’s biggest stage.
The internet immediately found the funniest part of the story. The official match ball contains electronics, which means it has to be charged. Give it about 90 minutes plugged in and you’ll get roughly six hours of battery life. That simple fact has inspired an endless stream of memes imagining referees frantically searching for an outlet before kickoff or teams delaying a match because somebody forgot to charge the ball.
Then there’s the price tag. Depending on where you buy it, the ball sells for around $170 to $175, which led fans to joke that the most valuable player on the field might actually be the microchip inside. Others pointed out an even bigger problem: if a player launches one of these into the crowd, there is absolutely no chance that the ball is making its way back onto the pitch.
At nearly two hundred bucks a pop, that souvenir is going home with somebody.
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