Law 2 of Soccer specifies that the Printed Football is an air-filled sphere with a circumference of 68-70 cm (or 27-28 inches), a weight 410-450 g (or 14-16 ounces), inflated to a pressure of 8-12 psi, and covered in a suitable material. The weight specified for a ball is the dry weight, as older balls often became significantly heavier in the course of a match played in wet weather.
The standard ball is a Size 5, although smaller sizes exist: Size 3 is standard for team handball and Size 4 in futsal and other small-field variants. Other sizes are used in underage games or as novelty items.
Most modern Promotional Soccer Balls are stitched from 32 panels of waterproofed plastic: 12 regular pentagons and 20 regular hexagons. The setup involving 32 panels is the spherical polyhedron corresponding to the truncated icosahedron; it is spherical because the faces bulge from high air pressure inside. The first 32-panel ball was marketed by Select early 50's in Denmark. The 32 panel design Soccer ball became common throughout Continental Europe in the 1960s, and was publicised worldwide by the Adidas Telstar, the official ball of the 1970 World Cup. The official match ball of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Older classic style balls were usually stitched from 18 oblong non-waterproof leather panels, similar to the design of modern volleyballs and Gaelic footballs, and laced to allow access to the internal air bladder. This configuration is still common in some soccer balls.
The official FIFA World Cup printed soccer balls for Germany 2006 matches was the 14-panel Design. and is a "thermally bonded" machine-pressed ball, rather than a traditionally stitched one. Another ball with an innovative pattern is the 26-panel Mitre PRO 100T. There are also indoor footballs, which are made of one or two pieces of plastic. Often these have designs printed on them to resemble a stitched leather.
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