FIFA World Cup 2018: Telstar Mechta to replace Telstar 18 as official ball for knockout stage

FIFA has announced that a new ball will be used for the knockout stage for the World cup 2018 in Russia.  ( Source- FIFA official site)

FIFA World Cup 2018: With FIFA World cup 2018 getting more thrilling with each passing match, the world football’s governing body has announced an exciting for the fans. FIFA has announced that a new ball will be used for the knockout stage for the World cup 2018 in Russia. The Adidas Telstart18 will be replaced by Adidas’ Telstar Mechta for the knockout stage starting on June 30. The ball is in Red colour with 2 significances. The colour of the ball denotes the colour of the host nation and also it denotes the increasing heat in the tournament where teams are escaping the danger of exiting the tournament at an early stage.

Messi with Marcus Rojo helped Argentina enter the next round with a 2-1 win against Nigeria 2-1. Also, Germany’s win against Sweden with Toni Kroos scoring at 90+5 mins gave a new life to the defending champions. The new design was tweeted by Adidas on Twitter on June 26, 2018.

Create the dream.
Introducing #Telstar18 Mechta, the official match ball for the 2018 @FIFAWorldCup Knockout Stage.#HereToCreate #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/sKJAnh4A4P

— adidas Football (@adidasfootball) June 26, 2018

‘Mechta’ means dreams and ambitions in Russian, paying tribute to the dreams and ambitions of the players playing to win the cup for their nation.

Telstart Mechta also has retained the carcass of the Official ball of 2014 World cup, Brazuca. Telstar Mechta just like Telstar18 also has an embedded NFC chip in it. The ball is designed to increase durability and performance of the players in both stadium and streets. Embedding the chip is a new innovative method and Telstar is the first official ball to be used in FIFA with an NFC chip. Telstar18 and Telstar Mechta, both are made of a recycled backing material and packaging as sustainability is the key focus for the governing body.

Dean Lokes, VP Product from Adidas, told the public on fifia.com that making of Telstar was a very big step to take technically as its the first ever ball with a chip to be used as an official ball.