Beau Jeu means beautiful game in French and is the official match ball of the European Football Championship 2016 in France. These games mark the 30th anniversary for adidas and Covestro (formerly Bayer MaterialScience) in developing balls together.
According to Adidas, the development of the ball has taken 18 months. Beau Jeu incorporates the best elements of the Brazuca, the official match ball of the 2014 Soccer World Cup. According to Covestro, it surpasses Brazuca in terms of grip and its properties in play. The improved ball control and stable flight characteristics of Beau Jeu, but also its water resistance are all thanks to its outer shell.
The ball’s outer shell consists of a total of five layers based on polyurethane raw materials from Covestro’s Impranil® line. The outermost skin is a full underglass print that prevents abrasion of the printed layer. The printed layer, a white surface decorated in the French national colors, blue, white and red, is thus very durable.
The underlying intermediate layer protects the ball against external influences and lends it unusually high elasticity. Beneath that is a polyurethane foam with millions of microspheres that ensure outstanding flight characteristics. A polyurethane adhesive bonds the top layers to a special polyester-cotton fabric that serves as a substrate.
The Beau Jeu had its premiere in the world’s first digital soccer stadium, the adidas Future Arena in St. Denis, France. Computer-animated stands simulated 50,000 spectators.
- Covestro AG, Leverkusen, Germany
- adidas, Herzogenaurach, Germany
Also of Interest
- News: Chemistry of Brazuca, the World Cup Football,
ChemistryViews.org 19 June 2014.
The 2014 World Cup football Brazuca has five polyurethane layers which make for its uniqueness - The Science of Football,
ChemViews Mag. 2012.
DOI: 10.1002/chemv.201200063
What would a football game be without chemistry?
