Select Sport is a Danish company that has been producing balls for more than half a century.  The Royale ($60) is the recipient of all that innovation and experience.

The Royale is a match/training level ball from Select Sport.  Select is the official ball of the Danish National Team, Belgium National Team and FC Copenhagen.  They also provide the official NFHS (High School) ball.

We have used a number of Select balls before.  All have been a fairly good value and all have lasted quite a while for their price point.  The Royale is the top of Select's Club series.  It is available in royal blue, forest green, navy, orange, maroon, red, black and silver and in sizes 4 or 5.  The color choices make this a good team or club ball to match uniform colors.

The casing is a standard 32 panel hand sewn polyurethane.  The graphics are screened on the cover.  The bladder is latex for better feel with a butyl valve.  The design is unique and attractive, but not terribly unusual.  The AVID Soccer test team has given our samples a complete thrashing in addition to our usual scientific tests.  They have held up well.  Wear on grass and turf is very good.  However, it is not as highly abrasion resistant to street or gravel play.  The cover does a good job of shedding water and they are not unusually slippery.  Even wet, it can be handled by a keeper with latex gloves.

Touch is good for a ball in this price range, but does not match the feel of a premium match ball.  The Royale is on the hard side at test pressure.  It is as well balanced as a hand sewn ball can be.  When wet, the ball is a bit slippery on most boots.  For more images, visit our facebook page.

In addition to meeting NFHS and NCAA specification, our Royale test units carry the IMS logo.  This signifies that the ball meets FIFA's standards for international play.  This designation indicates that the ball has been tested to FIFA standards, but the manufacturer is not paying royalties to FIFA for the "FIFA Approved" logo.  The guidelines for IMS certification are listed below:

Certification Procedures for “IMS International Matchball Standard”

The following guidelines explain the procedures to obtain certification for the football denomination
“IMS International Matchball Standard”.

• Manufacturers select the institute they prefer to have the tests performed amongst the institutes
  designated by FIFA

• Manufacturers provide test institute with documents outlined in the terms & conditions

• Manufacturers submit to test institute number of footballs required by the test institute

• Manufacturers pay the test fee charged by the test institute

• Test institute will communicate test results to the manufacturers

• Test institute will communicate positive test results to FIFA

• Balls which have met the minimum requirements and which may be used in FIFA and Confederation Matches must be marked with the official word mark “IMS International Matchball Standard” as per the Graphic Guidelines provided by the test institute.

• Each ball certification has a validity of 2 years (any material change of a certified ball model - renaming or different design/color excluded - is subject to re-testing).

Statistics:

• Weight: 15.4 oz / 436 grams
• Suggested Pressure: 11.5-14.0 psi
• Tested Pressure: 13.9 psi