Meet Your Official African Cup of Nations Match Ball

January 9th, 2008 | by: Daryl |

Where’s the ball? For all the big name superstar talent and the renovated stadiums, the single most important thing at the African Cup of Nations is the ball. Take away the ball and the pitch becomes just a grass rectangle with white lines on it, and the 22 players are just a bunch of guys standing around with nothing to do. The crowd wouldn’t be too happy about paying to see this non-event either. So read on for a look at the all important – and suitably magnificent – official African Cup of Nations match ball.

Here it is folks, in all its glory and manufactured by adidias. For all the usual technical jiggery-pokery (bonded this, streamlined that) the most striking thing about the official African Cup of Nations match ball is the colouring. Designed to include host nation Ghana’s red, yellow and green, the “wawa aba” (easily the best name for a tournament ball ever) is not only visually striking, it also has some cultural significance. From the adidas press release:

For the Akan culture originating from Western Africa the name “wawa aba” is a symbol of persistence. People there particularly believe in the strength and team spirit of a community. The wawa aba is the seed of the wawa tree, one of the strongest and most processible woods of Africa. For the population, the wawa aba mainly has mystical significance. These are people who don’t let failure discourage them, who seize all opportunities successfully and who are thus just as strong and adaptable as the wawa aba.

Adidas Wawa Aba ball

What do you think?

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Bman

Wow , hopefully the players( and audience) can avoid having epileptic seizures after that flies by. It does look cool though, by looking at it , you can definitly tell what continent, the ball represents.
Luis

You know, I don’t remember you guys making this big a ruckus for the Copa America. The Copa America has just as many quality players participate in it like the African Cup, but you guys sure gave the African one more attention.
http://tunisia.worldcupblog.org/ Rami

Copa America actually gets coverage in the US and the rest of the world while the African Cup is largely overlooked and even frowned upon by European clubs. Hell, I still don’t know where I’m going to catch most of the games. Last time around I relied on a radio station out of benin that was offering paid packages to watch pretty good feeds and recordings. WCB is trying to generate more mainstream interest in this competition. I understand your point Luis but still, Africa gets the short end of the stick in terms of international exposure so I think that what Daryl and everyone else here is doing is nothing but positive. Plus the Copa includes a lot of teams that need no introduction to the casual fan. Meanwhile, ask someone to name more than two players on Angola’s squad and you’ll see what happens.
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

Hi Luis,

Thanks for bringing this up. We would have loved to cover Copa America 2007 in the same way last summer but just didn’t have the resources or infrastructure at the time.

World Cup Blog was still comprised of just the 32 World Cup teams at the time, and The Offside was still in it’s relative infancy. World Cup Blog was redesigned and expanded to include potentially every national team possible only as recently as October 2007, which now gives us the ability to cover all international tournaments.

Please don’t interpret the lack of Copa America coverage as us disrespecting the tournament. It’s obviously fantastic and now that we have the infrastructure and resources the plan is to give the next Copa America the same level of attention that the African Cup of Nations is receiving now, Euro 2008 will receive this summer and World Cup 2010 will receive two years from now.
Luis

Thanks guys, it makes sense now. I thought you were discriminating the Asian Cup and Copa America, but I didn’t know that when those tournaments took place you only had 32 national teams. My apologies!
http://france.worldcupblog.org Laurie

Luis, if you’re interested in seeing more Copa America coverage, we’re always looking for more bloggers. Just so you know. Contact Daryl if you want to take over an unmanned blog.

(Have to get the plug in.)

And I love the ball. Very much African.

Also, I was over at the telesud website watching the ACN trailer again and found myself getting excited. I think all games should be played with a drum-heavy soundtrack. I really hope they choose to show the games.
Luis

I would love to blog for you guys only my country is already taking by somebody else I noticed. =(
Skander

Damn what a ball. Tt’s really beautiful. I hope they’ll bring some of them here to Sweden so i can buy one:) hah
elia

the ball truely captures the essence of the true african soccer spirit.Its a great looking ball!!!
Catherine-Lucia

It’s great! It truly captures the African football spirit.

My only question is…where can I buy one?! :)
kevin

where can i buy it? ^^
wayne

man, what a display of the africian beauty. great ball wish i could own one it.
tesfaye

wow really this year is quietspecial for africa .the player show thier compitance in the tornaments . keep it up afrikanas