The new official ball for Ligue 1 Uber Eats will make its first appearance at the Trophée des Champions between Paris Saint-Germain and FC Nantes on 31 July, while the official ball for Ligue 2 BKT will make its debut in Round 1 on the weekend of 30 July.

Top-level demands drive product development

Professional players - the brand's ambassadors on the pitch - wear the company's boots or goalkeeper's gloves during their matches in official competitions. This is an opportunity to test KIPSTA products at the highest level and for the brand to demonstrate its expertise, to make further progress and thus to continue to offer the best range of products, accessible to all. Throughout the year, in order to accompany KIPSTA in its continuous progress, these ambassadors exchange ideas, participate in workshops and propose improvements which are listened to, analysed and implemented on the different prototypes. As KIPSTA's desire is to make football accessible to all, the same products are offered to all players, be they professionals or amateurs.

FIFA QUALITY PRO labelled balls since 2016

All KIPSTA products have been designed, created and tested in France since 1998. The brand's marquee footballs have the FIFA QUALITY PRO label. By launching the development of an offer exclusively dedicated to football, KIPSTA has chosen to focus on two products: boots and footballs.

As early as 2016, the brand developed its expertise by offering FIFA PRO standard footballs. Four years later, following a consultation launched in March 2021, the LFP's Board of Directors appointed KIPSTA, the Decathlon Group's football brand, as the supplier of the official balls for Ligue 1 Uber Eats and Ligue 2 BKT for five years, from 2022 to 2027.

Evocative graphic design

The graphic design for these balls combines technicality and sobriety. The graphic details combine different notions common to KIPSTA and the LFP.

For the Ligue 1 Uber Eats ball, two strong values stand out in the graphic design: intensity and rivalry. Emblematic of this collective sport, the fervour that emanates from the greatest rivalries is represented on each side of the ball by some of the legendary clashes that have written the history of the championship.

As a tribute to the 90th anniversary of the French football championship in 2023, some of the 19 historic clubs to have won championships since the competition's creation are mentioned. Olympique Lyonnais, Olympique de Marseille, Paris Saint-Germain and AS Saint-Etienne, as well as RC Lens and LOSC Lille, face each other on the different panels.

The choice of colours - blue, white and red - reminds us that for the first time, a French company has been named as the official supplier of footballs for the French football elite.

The design of the Ligue 2 BKT ball offers a more graphic style reflecting the constant and permanent evolution of football in fashion and trends. From the tip of Finistère to the Isle of Beauty, from the Aquitaine region to the lines of the Grand Est, the ball honours the geography and borders of the territory - the story behind the ball.

State-of-the-art footballs

The technology used for the Ligue 1 Uber Eats and BKT League 2 balls is thermobonding (seamless ball). The balls offer a heightened playing feel thanks to the textured microfibre component, accompanied by foams and grooves. The balls are designed exclusively by KIPSTA and feature high trajectory stability.

In addition to the normative tests, the Kipsta Certification Unit, composed of field test engineers, also carries out in-use tests to design and objectively compare the performance of the balls via:
 
- Specific protocols and tests related to the use of the products
- The recruitment of qualified testers to evaluate the functions of the products
- Analysis of the results, using statistical tools
 
These tests cover general aspects, such as durability, resistance and sustainable inflation, as well as five functions reflecting the technical nature of the ball.

Practical information
Recommended retail price: 80€ incl. VAT
Available: Throughout the DECATHLON network and on decathlon.fr from May 2022

Technical characteristics:

Bladder: The bladder is a "High Rebound Advanced" bladder to which polyester fabric panels are glued for optimum sphericity, pressure resistance and rebound quality.

Panelling: The ball is made up of 12 textured panels in microfibre Polyurethane (PU) combined with a POE foam (Polyolefin Elastomer) to meet the highest technical requirements.

Manufacturing process: the 12 panels are heat-bonded, for better sphericity and resistance. The grooves on the outer surface guarantee excellent tracking stability.

About Kipsta: All team sports brand of the DECATHLON group, KIPSTA is specialised in the design of football products since 2016. Based in the North of France, the brand's mission is to improve the daily life of all footballers in a sustainable way. Kipsta is committed to excellence, providing its users with high-performance products, including at the highest level and at the most accessible price possible.

About Decathlon:
A leading company in the sports market, DECATHLON combines two activities: designing technical products, providing innovative services and offering them online and in shops. With 324 points of sale in France and more than 1,700 internationally, DECATHLON and its 105,000 team members have been working since 1976 with a constant ambition: to innovate for sport as a whole and take it to places where it is not yet.

More news: https://www.decathlon.media/

About the Ligue de Football Professionnel:

The Professional Football League regulates French professional football. As such, the LFP organises and manages five competitions: Ligue 1 Uber Eats®, Ligue 2 BKT®, the Trophée des Champions®, the EA Ligue 1 Games® and eLigue1®. The LFP finances all operations or actions likely to develop the resources of professional football in order to ensure its promotion. The Ligue de Football Professionnel is the leading organiser of live entertainment in France, with more than 800 matches per season and more than 10.4 million spectators (of which 7.9M for Ligue 1 Uber Eats®, 2.5M for Ligue 2 BKT®). Ligue 1 Uber Eats ® is broadcast by 63 broadcasters in 219 territories and 47 languages. French professional football is the number one sports product consumed by the media and has a strong geographic presence in the heart of 40 of the 50 largest French cities. 80% of the French population lives within 50km of a Ligue 1 Uber Eats® or Ligue 2 BKT® stadium.