In the 2017 season there was in total 1351 goals scored with the new official league match ball in the top two tiers of Swedish football. Now, when the 2018 season is about to begin, the ball from SELECT is ready for it’s second year as the official league match ball.
”The fact that every game is played with the same ball creates a fair league”, says David Moberg Karlsson player in IFK Norrköping.
Before SELECT was the official league ball of Allsvenskan and Superettan the league games in Sweden was played with five different ball brands. Now with the same ball in every game the players always know how the ball will behave on the pitch. Something that Rawez Lawan, team captain of newly promoted Dalkurd, sees as a good thing.
”We want to avoid situations were games gets decided because a player misjudges the balls trajectory, and that is what the official league prevent us from doing”, says Lawan.
”Now there is more focus on the match than on the material. That discussion does no longer exist at all”, says David Moberg Karlsson.
The fact that both Allsvenskan and Superettan as soon as in 2016 played with many different brands and balls already feels like a thing of the past.
”It was really time we started to use the same ball for the whole league, it was well needed. It was a strange feeling playing with five different balls. There is always a difference in size and weight you had to consider”, says Sebastian Eriksson of IFK Göteborg.
”In total, it raises the quality of the game and the entire Allsvenskan. Everybody knows how the ball behaves. We have been playing with it for one season now and it feels good. SELECT stand for high quality”.
This year the official league ball from SELECT changes color. 2018 will be played with a yellow ball. According to the players the color of the ball is a small matter.
”In some of the European leagues they also play with a yellow ball. The color does not matter”, says Sebastian Eriksson.
”I played with a yellow ball in Denmark. It does not matter”, says David Moberg Karlsson.
Rawez Lawan summaries:
”I like the ball, It is cool. It is a very good ball and I am comfortable with it.”
