You could try this as a way to place text on a sphere
1. Revolve a 1/2 Sphere
2. Revolve a flat section with the inner surface tangent to the edge of the sphere to create a 1/2 cylinder
3. Wrap text emboss to the inner edge of the 1/2 cylinder and then subtract this from your sphere
Hope this helps
I have attached a sample file in SW2008 format
Regards, Trevor