Although it had been planned to include an electronic tracking system in the ball, this was abandoned after a trial at the 2005 Under-17 World Championship in Peru.

Building on the introduction of thermal bonding technology in 2004, the Teamgeist ball is the first time Adidas has used this in a World Cup.

Loughborough University conducted extensive comparative testing on the ball, along with the Adidas football laboratory in Scheinfeld, Germany.

[5] While Swiss international Johann Vogel and David Beckham, both sponsored by Adidas, and others were reported to be happy with the new ball, it was criticized by many top players before the World Cup.

Players such as Brazil's Roberto Carlos[6] and Paul Robinson of England were among the critics of the new ball,[7] claiming it was too light and had a vastly different performance when wet.