Sports News of Monday, 17 June 2019

Source: footballghana.com

2019 AFCON: Ghana trains with Umbro's official match ball

Black Stars of Ghana have received 30 Umbro official match balls from CAF Black Stars of Ghana have received 30 Umbro official match balls from CAF

Black Stars of Ghana have received 30 Umbro official match balls from CAF for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations to be staged in Egypt.

Coach Kwesi Appiah and his lads used the new Umbro leather football during their goalless draw against South Africa in their final pre-Afcon friendly at the Police Stadium in Dubai.

Each participating country has received 30 Umbro leather footballs to train with ahead of the tournament.

The essence is for all 24 countries to get accustomed to the round ball before the start of the tournament on 21 June 2019.

The evolution of African football is visible in the development of the AFCON ball, which has gone from a leather-bound pig's bladder to the high-tech, synthetic spheres we see sold in stores and marketed around Africa and the rest of the world.

Umbro won the bid to manufacture the official match ball for this year’s tournament having wrestled the rights from mitre who produced the official match ball during the previous edition.