A penny floater is a kind of cheap

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

commonly used by children in the Western world. Its name derives from the fact that when they were first developed in the 1960s they cost a

penny A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is t ...

. The penny floater may have originated in Italy. The floater part comes from the fact that as they are made of a thin layer of hardened plastic filled with air: their light weight makes them susceptible to floating or swerving with the wind. Penny floaters are commonly used by young children; however, among older children they are an object of ridicule and mocked as cheap toy footballs unsuitable for use. Nonetheless, their cheapness and the fact that they do not damage other objects in urban environments as easily as regular footballs do make them common. Professional footballs are sometimes compared to penny floaters disparagingly, as in the case of the

Adidas Jabulani The Jabulani ( , ) was a ball (association football), football manufactured by Adidas. It was the List of FIFA World Cup official match balls, official match ball for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The ball is made from eight spherically moulded panels ...

football used in the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

. The Jabulani was criticised for its performance, which was partly because its internal stitching made it too spherical to spin normally and more like a penny floater in that regard.

References

Balls Inflatable manufactured goods 1960s toys {{toy-stub