Putin’s Soccer Ball for Trump Had Transmitter Chip, Logo Indicates
- Tag that links to phones is inside all such Adidas balls
- World Cup feature opens fan experience, isn’t a spy device
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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s gift of a soccer ball to U.S. President Donald Trump last week set off a chorus of warnings -- some of them only half in jest -- that the World Cup souvenir could be bugged. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham even tweeted, “I’d check the soccer ball for listening devices and never allow it in the White House.”
It turns out they weren’t entirely wrong. Markings on the ball indicate that it contained a chip with a tiny antenna that transmits to nearby phones.