Nike Flight Ball explained and why we should expect these high scoring Premier League games to continue.

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Nike announced the design in July. In their own words:

“1700 lab hours, 800 footballers, 68 iterations, and 1 robotic leg all combined to give the new Nike Flight Ball 30% truer flight than its Nike predecessor”

The ball’s notable feature is it’s patented AerowSculpt technology, the deep ridges on the ball’s surface.

A smooth ball is likely to be grabbed by the air, which can abuse turbulence and unpredictable changes in direction.

The new ball’s ridges counter this as they encourage air to move around the ball rather than gripping the surface.

With these aerodynamic inconsistencies reduced by 30%, crosses, long balls, free kicks and other flighted methods should be more accurate.

The same principle is used in golf to increase the distance and accuracy of a ball - dimples.

It’s been proven that dimpled golf balls can travel double the distance of a smooth one with much greater accuracy. That extreme innovation is now being applied to football.

The Premier League is using one of the balls during the 20/21 season. Recently, it’s felt like there’s been a lot of goals, really good finishes and long range attempts.

Here’s some examples you’ll recognise:

The increase in goals this season with the new ball has been drastic, about 30%

• PL goal average 20/21: 3.67
• PL goal average 19/20: 2.72
• PL goal average 18/19: 2.82
• PL goal average 17/18: 2.68

There may be some coincidence and other factors at play, but it seems the more accurate balls are having a positive affect.

This early on (with a reduced preseason) you’d actually expect less goals. Like in Ligue 1, which has had 2.42 goals per game, down from an average of 2.6

Theoretically long shots should improve with a greater flight trajectory, so I did the math:

So far in 20/21 there has been 0.42 goals outside the box per game. This is a 15% increase on the three season average of 0.356.

It’s early days, but what we’ve seen so far is what we’d expect with 30% truer flight balls.

Expect more accurate crosses, free kicks, longshots & overhead balls leading to higher scoring games this season. Serie A will use these balls too.

Thanks for reading