Soccer players storm the field, fiercely kicking the ball on the green, hoping to score a goal before they are slowed or stopped by the opposition in one of the high-octane matches of the international, quadrennial FIFA World Cup. The soccer ball on the field is one of the multicolored Adidas-brand "Brazuca" (slang for "Brazilian") 2014 final official match balls. Priced at $159.99 or replicas priced at a "meager" $39.99, these balls were assembled by Pakistani women paid 10,000 Pakistani rupees a month ($101.73), less than the price of a single ball.

Ninety percent of those chosen to craft the balls were women, who are considered more diligent and meticulous. The Pakistanis worked the production line while clad in dark headscarves with their faces veiled, working briskly. They began with flat white propeller-shaped pieces of polyurethane, added Brazuca's distinctive colors and then glued the panels to the ball's rubber. They treated the seams with special sealant, heating and compressing the ball into its spherical shape.

From flat panel to finished product, the process takes up to 40 minutes. The factory produces up to 100 balls per hour.

The FIFA-approved balls were produced in the Forward Sports factory in the eastern town of Sialkot, Pakistan, which joined forces with China as key suppliers of Adidas World Cup soccer balls. Adidas selected Forward when China couldn't meet demand. In just one month, Forward mustered the necessary equipment to create the Brazuca balls. The factory prides itself on quality control and durability: The balls were tested for roundness, durability, water resistance, bounce, glossiness and impact. Sialkot has a long tradition of soccer ball production: 30 million balls were exported last year, 40 percent of global soccer ball production.

Brazilian Ambassador Alfredo Leoni said, "It was a matter of great pride that the World Cup [soccer balls] were provided by a Pakistani company, giving Pakistan a connection with the global contest."

While the Pakistani women's pay may seem minuscule compared to the price of the balls, apparently workers at the factory are treated well. The high-tech factory draws unskilled and poorly educated individuals in a nation half of whose inhabitants are illiterate. The factory empowers women who are largely expected to stay at home and care for their families.

"We take unskilled workers and train them. This is a job that is not available anywhere else. You have to get someone with good attitude and train them," Forward Sports CEO Khawaja Masood Akhtar said.

While the story has an empowerment angle -- the soccer ball producers reiterated that they anticipate seeing the well-crafted balls on the field — there's no denying the fact that FIFA is exploiting the cheap labor of developing countries.

The minimum wage in Pakistan was raised from 8,000 rupees to 10,000 rupees per month just last year for unskilled workers. The minimum wage in Brazil was 724.00 Brazilian real per month (U.S. $325.69) as of January 2014. And the minimum wage in the United States has been $7.25 per hour since 2009.

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