The World Cup is under way in South Africa! And we’re having a ball! The official match ball is the Adidas Jabulani, and it’s revolutionary design is already causing quite a stir. Some say it wobbles too much. Some say it benefits strikers. Some say it penalizes goalkeepers. Some say its patented GripNGroove technology helps them out. So many questions, with a single answer: Who will lift the cup at the end?

What we do know is this: the new ball reduces the number of panels from 14 (in the last World Cup) to a measly 8. And the 14-panel design was already a major reduction from the 32 panels of the traditional black-and-white soccer ball. The familiar pentagon-hexagon design is actually a truncated icosahedron (or bucky ball). Its sharp black and white contrast was specifically designed to appear more visible on live B&W television broadcasts (which BTW is the same design philosophy that inspired the Panda Seal Mamegona and the Yakuza Brush).

A complete visual guide to the evolution of the World Cup ball can be found here.) And with such a contentious design history, we are excited to see that designers are rising out of the stands to muck it up with soccer hooligans. ATYPYK offers their take on the official match ball below. It’s a traditional design in shape, but the color palette says it it all. A stark reminder and a social commentary for the 2010 tournament hosts, which now call themselves a “Rainbow Nation.”

… or this?