Great Balls of FIFA

Science World in Vancouver is now dressed up as a giant FIFA World Cup soccer ball. Called the Adidas Trionda, the official match ball of the current World Cup is emblazoned with colours and imagery derived from the 2026 World Cup host nations.

Photo for The Tyee by Jackie Wong.

Media

CULTURE

SPORTS

Media

Scratching your head over soccer? The Science World exhibition and several doc films will help you make sense of things.

Dorothy Woodend 12 Jun 2026 The Tyee

Dorothy Woodend is the culture editor for The Tyee.

The first Vancouver match in the FIFA World Cup takes place on Saturday. Meanwhile soccer has taken over a good portion of the city. Everywhere you look, there are soccer balls. Big ones and little ones hang in store windows, or dangle off souvenir keychains. There is even a giant version plopped in the middle of the plaza at Granville and Georgia streets downtown.

Alongside the citywide ball-a-palooza, there have been more substantial changes, such as blocked-off streets , postponed local cultural events and lingering questions about whether or if the World Cup will contribute meaningfully to local youth soccer infrastructure .

If you need to find a way to feel better about the incursion of the 2026 World Cup, information, historical context and political commentary are always useful.

Start at Vancouver’s Science World, which has been transformed into a giant soccer ball. A new exhibition offers an encompassing look into the science behind the game. To say it is complex isn’t quite sufficient. Just about every possible aspect of soccer has been subjected to rigorous and intensive study, from the design of balls to the biometrics of the players.

Soccer & Technology from the FIFA Museum , presented in partnership with the province of British Columbia, draws from the considerable footie collection housed in FIFA Museum’s Zurich headquarters. There’s extensive history on display, including the cameras used to televise the 1954 World Cup and the jersey worn by Canada’s all-time goal scorer Christine Sinclair during the gold medal game against Sweden at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

The five zones in the exhibition break down the science employed to bring soccer to the world, from media coverage to cameras capable of capturing every possible nuance. Ball technology is also big. Yes, Virginia, more balls!

Visitors explore a new exhibition at Vancouver’s Science World called Science & Technology from the FIFA Museum.

Photo courtesy of Science World.

The official ball of the current series employs something called “Connected Ball Technology.” The Adidas Trionda, the official match ball of the current World Cup, is emblazoned with colours and imagery derived from the 2026 host nations, namely Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

The balls themselves are embedded with a motion-sensor chip to connect the action on the field with analysts poring over every possible data point.

The Denmark national women’s soccer team wins at Copa 71, the first women’s World Cup that took place in Mexico City in 1971. It’s a largely under-sung, underreported milestone in sports history that put women’s soccer on the map.

Photo via IMDB .

To understand the stakes, watch these films

What doesn’t quite come up for close examination in the Science World exhibition? The politics underscoring the World Cup. For that, one must venture further afield. Luckily, there are documentaries aplenty about the beautiful game and its sometimes less-than-lovely repercussions.

I highly recommend COPA 71 , a 2023 documentary now available for viewing on the Knowledge Network . It is a truly amazing story of the fight for equality in women’s soccer — all the more so because it’s a fight that continues to be largely unknown, excised from history and buried by soccer officialdom.

The 2009 documentary The Referees is also an excellent primer on the politics of European soccer. The film’s original title, Kill the Referee , offers a better sense of the stakes involved. Made with extraordinary access, the film follows teams of officials from European nations. British referee Howard Webb’s controversial call in the UEFA Europa League 2008 finals between Austria and Poland brought on death threats, including one from the then-Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

WATCH: The trailer for Mike Brett and Steve Jamieson’s documentary Next Goal Wins , the underdog story of the American Samoa team and their attempts to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Video via Rotten Tomatoes Indie .

I also recommend Mike Brett and Steve Jamison’s 2014 documentary Next Goal Wins — and skip the terrible 2023 feature film based on the doc starring Michael Fassbender. Next Goal Wins tells the true underdog story of the American Samoa team in their efforts to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, following a 31-0 loss to Australia.

A new documentary outlines one of the most infamous competitions to ever take place on the soccer pitch.

The Match retells the story of the 198…