AS the World Cup spins on an axis of acclaim, York's Paul Neilson could be at the core of the 2006 tournament.

The former York City Boys and Wigginton Grasshoppers central defender has designs on improving how a football behaves on the pitch and some of his theories could well be put into practice for the development of the ball to be kicked into action during the next World Cup finals in Germany in four years' time.

Neilson's expertise has flourished in the high-tech think-tank of the Sports Technology Research Group based at Loughborough University. It was there where he went as an undergraduate in 1997, notching a degree in Product Design and Manufacture.

That has since led him to a post-graduate PhD in sports technology specifically looking into the dynamics of a football, a three-year course of which he is now two-thirds of the way through.

Part of the remit of his research project is to collaborate with sports manufacturing giants adidas, who have produced the Fevernova ball currently doing the rounds at the Japan and South Korea World Cup and who will provide the balls for the Euro 2004 Championship in Portugal and the 2006 World Cup. Neither Neilson or any of the STRG were involved in the Fevernova design.

If ever proof was needed that football, plus other sports, are now orbiting the realms of higher science, then the work done by the 24-year-old Neilson, and his fellow team members of Loughborough University's STRG, underpins that conviction.

Most of the work at the group has been involved in perfecting improvements to golf and tennis balls. The recruitment of Wigginton-born Neilson gave research into the design of footballs a major kick-start.

"I was offered the chance of doing my PhD in football and being a fan of the sport that sort of research certainly appealed to me," said Neilson, who is working on a series of field tests, which could strengthen those already operated by football's world governing body, FIFA.

He explained: "FIFA have a series of test methods to cover aspects such as size, weight, pressure, speed, retention of shape of a ball, but they are all static-based and done in the laboratory.

"What I am looking at is developing those sort of test studies as to how well a ball will perform physically out there on the pitch."

To that end Neilson conducted a series of tests at several English clubs last season, including Premiership duo Everton and Aston Villa, plus Leicester, who suffered relegation from the top-flight to the First Division of the Nationwide League, and Norwich.

Neilson, who has not long returned to playing for a Leicestershire League side after suffering a severe ankle ligament injury, is hoping that data will eventually provide a more in-depth back-up to FIFA's tests.

Just as exciting is the tie-up the Loughborough STRG has with adidas in helping to develop the balls for football's next two major tournaments - the European Championships in two years' time and the World Cup two years later.

The Holy Grail for any scientist working in the field of ball design is consistency of performance, maintained Neilson.

"Consistency is the keyword. Players do not want a ball that is going to be unpredictable. They want to manipulate it so that they know what it will do precisely.

"But there are a lot of things to consider such as materials used and varying conditions.

"There are also out of bound forces such as where the valve is placed in a ball. They can affect its performance."

Obviously, the days of pig bladders, leather casings and skin-shredding laces to tie up the ball are as long gone as centre-partings, toe-capped boots and those proverbial jumpers for goal-posts.

Updated: 12:22 Thursday, June 20, 2002