Just when it seemed as though Adidas realised that football fans like traditional colours with their re-introduction of the Adidas Predator, they appear to have made a bizarre decision regarding the Champions League match ball for next season's group stages.
The ever-reliable FootyHeadlines.com caught wind of the decision and sourced an image of the ball, which looks like the kind of ball you'd pick up from a basket of balls reduced to €8 because you need a backup for your weekly 5-a-side.
Footballs should be white, unless it's snowing, in which case they should be yellow or orange, but for reasons unknown the Champions League group stages will feature a blue football next season.
Is it the end of the world? No, but... Why?
Why a blue football? All this is going to do is cause confusion and you can already see the Twitter reaction during the first round of fixtures as football fans tune in wondering if their TVs need to be replaced.
The Champions League ball was perfected in 2003, and since then we've seen the same star pattern - or one very close to it - on every ball with a littel gimmick to make it different, usually to reflect where the final will be played. But this one is just strange.
Like the Adidas Predators, we believe the Champions League ball peaked in 2002:
[image via YKYECO on Flickr]
