The ball was first introduced as the "Telstar Elast" for the
1968 European Football Championship. A slightly different ball named "Telstar" was used as the
official match ball of the
1970 FIFA World Cup in
Mexico. The similar "Telstar Durlast" was one of two official balls, along with the
Chile Durlast, of the
1974 FIFA World Cup held in
West Germany. and was also used in the official logo for the 1970 World Cup. The black-and-white pattern, to aid visibility on
black and white television broadcasts (colour television was still rare worldwide during this time), was also well established before the Telstar. satellite for which the ball was named The name came from the 1962
Telstar communications satellite, which was roughly spherical and dotted with solar panels, somewhat similar in appearance to the football. and was the first to send live television signals, telephone calls, and fax images through space, which inaugurated an age of instant worldwide communications via satellite. The ball was made of
leather. Only 20 Telstars were provided for the World Cup; an estimated 600,000 replicas were sold subsequently. The Chile Durlast was all white and was used during the Italy-Germany semifinal for the first 20 minutes, then it was replaced by a 32 panel black and white due to a deflation. A new version of the Telstar, named
Telstar 18, was the official match ball for the
2018 FIFA World Cup. The design maintains the general pattern, except the corners of the pentagons are stretched into pixellated gradients. Telstar is now considered a classic design. Although most footballs used in current championships have different designs and sections, in representations of footballs in cartoons, comics, caricatures and decorations in general, footballs inspired by Adidas Telstar are usually used, becoming a universal icon for football to this day. ==References==