In the same way as your football team's shirts can each hold connotations of a period of your life, happiness or sadness, success or - dare we say it - failure, so can the history of matchballs. Since Mexico 1970 and the advent of the first World Cup televised in colour, adidas have always been the top dogs in creating spherical masterpieces. 12 black pentagons and 20 white hexagons screams Pelé and Brazil and every four years since there has been another released to whet the appetite for the forthcoming showpiece.

From the continuation of the Telstar through the 70's, via the uber-iconic Tangos (can any piece of manufacturing history be of more need of a re-release?) full circle to Mexico '86's Azteca and beyond. If you can find an Azteca with chubby knuckle marks then fear not ye any global economic meltdown. The same goes for a Geordie-tear-stained Etrusco from Italia '90. These balls are not purely functional. Each tells a story of a team, a player, a country.

SPORT+MARKT published The European Football Merchandising Report, which shows that the six biggest European top clubs generate a total of 615 million euros (519 million GBP) annually selling replica shirts and other items.

Sport + Markt looked into the merchandising income of the 116 top flight clubs in six areas, (The Premier League, Primera Liga, German Bundesliga, French Ligue 1, Serie A and the Dutch Eredivisie) not at that generated in other markets in Europe or Asia.

The Premier League (171 million euro's) ranks ahead of Spain's Primera Liga (145 million euros), the German Bundesliga (127), France's Ligue 1 (86), Italy's Serie A (64) and the Dutch Eredivisie (22).

Sport + Markt observed that the clubs sold 93.3 per cent of their merchandising products on the domestic market and only 6.7 per cent in the other five areas.