Size 5 — circumference 68-70 cm, weight 410-450 g at kick-off, pressure 0.6-1.1 atmospheres — is the only football size actually fixed in the rules, under Law 2 of the Laws of the Game published by the International Football Association Board (IFAB). It is the standard adult ball, the one that sits by default on every sporting-goods shelf and the one used on every pitch in Chișinău. Everything else — material, bladder, quality mark — comes down not to a rule but to where and how often you actually play.
Size 5 is the adult standard — the rest is industry convention
Beyond the three figures in Law 2, for players under 12 retailers and most youth federations use smaller sizes: size 3 for children under 8, size 4 for children aged 8 to 12. A size-5 ball is simply too big and too heavy for a young child to control properly — that is where the smaller sizes come from, not from a separate official rule.
| Ball | Circumference | Weight | Other detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Football, size 5 (adults) | 68–70 cm | 410–450 g | pressure 0.6–1.1 atm at kick-off, under Law 2 |
| Futsal, size 4 (age 13+) | 62–64 cm | 400–440 g | rebound 50–65 cm from a 2 m drop |
| Futsal, size 3 (age 8–12) | 56–59 cm | 350–380 g | — |
Law 2 does not directly regulate sizes 3 and 4 for regular outdoor football — which is why the table above has no figures for them on the football row. Futsal balls, by contrast, carry their own official specification, covered further down.
PU, PVC and the bladder that changes how the ball feels
Almost no ball sold today is still made of natural leather — it gets heavier when wet and loses its shape. Instead, the outer layer is polyurethane (PU) or polyvinyl chloride (PVC). PU is the pricier material: it gives a more precise touch on contact, and the more layers of it a ball has, the longer it holds its shape. PVC is the cheaper option, fine for occasional training, but it gives out faster under wear.
The bladder inside changes how a strike actually feels. A butyl bladder holds pressure far longer between pumps, because it lets less air pass through its walls. A natural latex bladder gives a softer, more pleasant contact on the strike, but loses air faster and needs pumping up more often.
Real quality shows in the stitching, not the box copy. On a well-made ball, the pattern is printed onto the panels before they are sewn or thermally bonded together. On a cheap ball, the paint pools right at the seams — a clear sign it was applied after assembly rather than before it.
The FIFA Quality Pro mark — what it actually tests
For competitions organised under FIFA or the confederations, Law 2 requires the ball to carry one of the marks from the FIFA Quality Programme for Footballs: FIFA Quality Pro, FIFA Quality or FIFA Basic. Each mark confirms the ball has passed seven laboratory tests — weight, circumference, roundness, rebound, water absorption, loss of pressure, and shape and size retention — and FIFA Quality Pro requires passing those same tests under even tougher conditions than the standard mark. National federations can, in turn, require one of these marks for their own competitions.
For a match between friends on a city pitch, the mark changes nothing in practice — it only matters at an organised level, where a competition's own regulations call for it explicitly.
The country on the box doesn't say what you'd think
England wrote the rules of modern football, but almost no quality ball is still made there. Around 80% of quality footballs worldwide are manufactured in India and Pakistan — including balls sold under well-known European brands; Adidas, for instance, makes its balls exclusively in Asia. The country printed on the box says nothing about actual quality: the outer-layer material, the bladder type and the FIFA mark all say far more than a brand's declared home country.
What happens when the ball bursts mid-match
The rules spell this case out directly, and it is worth knowing on an abrasive synthetic pitch, where it happens more often than on natural grass. If the ball becomes defective during play, the referee stops the match and restarts it with a dropped ball for the team that would have kept or gained possession at the moment of the stoppage. If it becomes defective right at a kick-off, goal kick, corner kick, free kick or throw-in, that specific restart is simply retaken with the new ball. If it bursts during a penalty kick, before touching a player, the crossbar or the goalposts, the penalty is retaken. The ball cannot be changed mid-match without the referee's permission.
Small pitch or futsal — a different ball, not just a different surface
On a regular synthetic pitch, a standard size-5 ball bounces predictably. On a small pitch or indoors, where the space is much tighter and passes are shorter, that same ball bounces too much and is harder to control. Futsal's own rules, built on the IFAB Laws of the Game but adapted for indoor play, call for a distinct ball — smaller and heavier: size 4 (62-64 cm, 400-440 g) for players aged 13 and up, size 3 (56-59 cm, 350-380 g) for those aged 8 to 12. The official bounce test requires that, dropped from 2 metres, the ball rebounds between 50 and 65 cm — far less than a regular outdoor ball on the same surface.
If you play on a small pitch often, a low-bounce futsal ball controls better than a size-5 ball carried over from a match on a full-size pitch.
Sporta MD covers football, basketball, volleyball and tennis. The right size, material and mark matter more than the brand on the box or the country on the label — the rest just depends on where you actually play.