June Football auction at Bonhams

Some eight months after the high-profile sale of George Best Memorabilia it is time for a new auction at Bonhams in Chester.
The George Best auction last october was the result of setting the score with the executors of Best's estate firing a feude among his family members, some of which wanted to keep the honours.

The outcome of the auction were staggering sums of the Manchester United and Northen Ireland legend's medals and silverware. His European Cup medal went under the hammer for £156 000. Most buyers were anonymous.
As to my knowledge the Manchester United Museum did not bid for the most interesting and expensive items.
Nor did the issue of a George Best museum in Northern Ireland rise, as was being discussed a couple of years back.

The auction starting tomorrow deals with a great deal of signed shirt and programmes. Among them is a programme for the World Cup final 1958 (of special interest to me, Sweden played Brazil with two ÖIS players in the line up, Simonsson even scored on '80).

For those interested in Boots, Teddy Sheringham's old England Adidas of 1999 is a couple a few boots on sale.
The most interesting shirt, the Vava of the 1962 World Cup Final has been withdrawn.

Whatever happened to the Australian World Cup qualification winning penalty spot and ball?

When John Aloisi scored the deciding spot kick against Uruguay it meant that Austarlia would play their first World Cup in 31 years. It was 16th November 2005 and the qualification match between Australia and Uruguay had gone to a penaly shoot-out finale.

The nervous home side supporters of the Socceroos exploded in joy when that last kick put the ball inte back of the net. It was surely a moment of great national importance. The historic value of the event was acknowledged when it was decided that not only would the penalty kick ball be kept but also the very penalty kick spot, a patch of grass, were to be preserved, dry-frozen.

The ball and piece of turf was on display in the Telstra stadium before ending up in an exhibition in the Powerhouse Museum, entitled "The World Cup dream: stories of Australia's soccer mums and dads".

In June 2006 the ball and piece of turf was sold at an ebay charity auction, with the profit benefitting the Johnny Warren Football Foundation. The final sum was 17 500 Australian Dollars.

But where are those artifacts of great historic value and national importance now?
They should be in a museum, and perhaps they are? Or maybe they just decorate the mantelpiece of a wealthy football fan?

Do you know what has happened to the Aloisi penalty spot and ball?
Then, get in touch with me here

Player Profile: Jamie Carragher

Jamie Carragher is a true Liverpool legend. It is the only club he ever played for and he is regarded as one of the most loyal and successful defenders in Liverpool history, although he grew up an Everton fan.

The no. 23, nick-named "Carra" made his debut in 1996, and became a first regular the following season. Having mainly played as a full-back he later came to play in central defence, with the equally legendary Sami Hyypiä among others, when Rafael Benitez became manager in 2004.

As an England player he earned 38 national caps and was talked out of retirement for the 2010 World Cup.
Carragher's biggest honours include winning the FA Cup in 2001 & 2006; the UEFA Cup in 2001; the League Cup in 2001 & 2003 and of course the Champions League in 2005.
For the 2006/7 season he was elected Liverpool FC Player of the Year.

The Liverpool FC Museum has all of Jamie Carragher's medals, most of them displayed in a special case. Musuem Curator Stephen Done desrcibes the collection on the LFC website:

"The way Carra donated his medals to the Museum is typical of the man.
Jamie had just brought them in, dumped them on the desk and told them to give Stephen Done a call.
So off I went and there they were, in this bag. He didn't want a receipt or anything. He just told me to put them on show in the museum and walked off.

It was absolutely unbelievable. It is one of the great moments I have had here as a museum curator and shows just how down to earth and trusting our favourite number 23 is.
I have to say that I think it is one of the most exciting additions we have ever received.
For me, it ranks alongside the Kenny Dalglish and Alan Hansen collections that are already on show. /.../
It also illustrates how fantastic Jamie Carragher has been as a player."

Fact File: Arsenal Museum

The Arsenal Museum

Arsenal FC is an English Premier League club, founded in 1886.

Location: in their home ground Emirates stadium, Islington, north London
Opening year: 1993 (in old Highbury stadium, closed in 2006) and 2006 in the new Emirates stadium
Annual visitor number: 120 000 ca
Collection size: 10 000 objects ca (about 10% is on display)

Among the many trophies, one shurley stands out: The unbeaten trophy from 2003-2004. Arsenal is the only Club since Preston in 1888/89 to have gone through an entire League campaign without losing a match.
A less prestigous one although typical Arsenal is the trophy for the best golfer at Arsenal FC. Since the 1930s under Herbert Chapman, Arsenal FC players have played golf to relax. This trophy was last held by Len Wills (1953-62).

Another fine piece is a silver shield commemorating the hat-trick of League Championships 1933 - 35 .

Other museum objects include club player related artifacts of Arsenal legends like: David Rocastle, Charlie George, David O’Leary, George Armstrong and George Graham.
As for famous Balls and Boots, the two stand out items are the ball from the 1936 Cup Final and Michael Thomas’ boots which he wore when he scored the second goal against Liverpool at Anfield 1989, possibly the most famous goal in Arsenal’s history.

The Arsenal Museum plans to get a temporary exhibition display area and getting more of the collection display around the stadium.

Prices: £6 (£3 concessions) or as part of a stadium tour.
Museum Opening Times:
Monday to Friday: 10am-6pm (last admittance 5pm)
Saturday: 10am-6pm (last admittance 5pm)
Sunday: 10am-5pm (last admittance 4pm)
Matchdays: 10am until half an hour before kick off. The museum will not be open after the match.

Thanks to Samir Singh, Museum and Education Assistant, Arsenal

Read more about Arsenal Museum on their website

Exhibition: History of Hamburg fans

In february 2011 the club museum of Hamburger SV opened a new temporary exhibition about the HSV fan culture named: "Wir stehen Schlange vor dem Stadion – Die Geschichte der HSV-Fans“. (We're standing in line in front of the stadium - the history of the HSV fans)

The exhibition follows the development of fan culture from the Empire period up til present day, describing the various dimensions of being a HSV fan.
There are video documentaries with interviews of fans from the 1920's and presentations of fan groups world wide.
Visitors get a chance to experience the supporter terrace of the HSV arena in a replica of the Fantribüne.

Social aspects and football-related violence are two other themes of the exhibition which seems to be well worth a visit.

The exhibition will run until spring next year, so there's plenty of time.

Link to the exhibition

The HSV Museum is located in the HSV Arena in Hamburg. It changes names quite often. When I was there it was called 'Nordbank Arena' but it is 'Imtech Arena' but I feel that it would be all right to just call it 'Volkparkstadion'. In the UEFA context it is simply called "Hamburg Arena".

Pelé Museum planned for 2012 opening

The city of Santos, Brazil plans to open the Pelé museum in 2012.

Pelé joined Santos when he was 15 years old in 1956, and stayed til 1974. He is regarded by many as the greatest player ever, with three World Cup wins and massive goal-scoring statistics.
It was reported some years ago that the city of Santos was set to establish a Pelé museum. To follow up on this information I got in touch with the city of Santos.

The ambition of Santos city hall back in 2010 was to launch two projects to create jobs and boost the economy as well as tourism. One of which was the Pelé Museum.

The location of the Museum will be in the neighbourhood of Valongo, currently a poor part of Santos that is facing great problems. However, the municipality has confirmed a large budget for the refurbishment of the whole district of Valongo.
As for the Pelé Museum, the budget of $20 million is covered by the Government of São Paolo state, the Ministry of Culture and other private contributions.

One unique feature of the museum will be an artful sculpture in Pelé's honour created by the legendary architect, Brazilian Oscar Niemeyer, now aged 103!

The aim is to attract many tourists that will go to Brazil for the World Cup in 2014

Thanks to Mariana Munayer, Head of Tourist Information, City of Santos

The picture: Pelé and Oscar Niemeyer with an image of the planned sculpture, at a press conference in november 2010, Rio de Janeiro

Read more on the City of Santos' web
Read more about Pelé and Oscar Niemeyer here (with pics) and here

Link to the FIFA' s World Cup page

Light on the US matter

Regarding the last post on the US Soccer Museum status, I turned to the former Director of the Museum (National Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum) Mr Jack Huckel.

Q:
Do you have an updated version of the status of the collections and archives?
I fear that the valuable collection will be sold of.

A:
Let me put you at ease - the collection in general cannot be sold off as part of the agreement with the certifying organization - New York State Office of Museums.

The materials are located in the Eurosport warehouse in North Carolina. The warehouse is a climate controlled facility and the archives are, I have been told, stored separately in a caged area so there is not general availability to its contents. The plan, as expressed to me, is to work with museum and library studies students to work the collection. Hopefully, this will become true.

To make some corrections to your blog post, the National Soccer Hall of Fame is still organized as a non-profit corporate entity. A new Board of Directors is being instituted and it will be a separate entity from the U.S. Soccer Federation, though U.S. Soccer will continue to offer administrative support.

In actuality the two organizations will act together, but legally will be separate.

The key is, of course, that the archives are together and could be used to resurrect the Museum in the future.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This future scenario is not likely anytime soon, so we just have to wait and see what the new Board concludes.
Jack Huckel is now his own man with a specialist firm offering services with work related to Halls of Fame: J.R. Huckel & Associates

More museums added (May 2011)

With the refurbishment of the blog, I have "found" some new football museums, before unknown to me, in just a couple of weeks.
As it is, the only way to find more museums is to search the Internet as thoroghly as possible and language is always a barrier.

So, for the past couple of weeks these museums have been added to the list of Football Museums:

The Legia Warsaw Museum, in Poland
The Steaua Bucharest Museum, in Romania
The Atletico Madrid Museum, in Spain
The River Plate Museum, in Argentina
The Olympique Marseille Museum, in France
The Hertha Berlin Museum, in Germany (scheduled to open in 2012)

Hopefully they can respond to my questions so that I can get a chance to present the museums further here on "Balls & Boots" - the Football Museum blog
Click the link in top link bar for the full list

What are the plans for the US Soccer Collection and Archives?

When the US National Soccer Hall of Fame & Museum closed down in Oneonta, 2009, little was known what was going to happen to the collection of objects. Over a year has passed since the museum's board of directors decided to give up their facilities and break up their displays. The collection and archive was said to be relocated to a warehouse in North Carolina, at a long term sponsor.

The press release of february 2010 said:

"As part of the operating change, the Hall of Fame will close its Oneonta, N.Y., facility and relocate the collections and archives. Preliminary plans include distributing permanent displays for exhibition in several locations nationwide, while elements of the Hall’s archives not on display will be preserved in storage facilities provided by one of the Hall’s longtime corporate sponsors, Eurosport, located in Hillsborough, N.C."

The ownership of the collections and archives is no longer with the former non-profit organisation but with the US Soccer Federation, apparently. The plans for the collection or any future plans for a museum are not known. Rumours has it that the US Soccer Federation wants to relocate the Museum to a larger city, preferably to the stadium of a MLS club.
No luck in that department as of yet.

Balls & Boots will try to get some fresh information on this case.

The National Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum opened in 1981 and moved to their new facilities in 1999 before closing in 2009.
In relation to the type of colletcions what other football museums holds, the US one is of particular interest, especially in terms of women's football. For instance, among the world's football museum objects of fantastic players the Mia Hamm collection is a crucial one.

The US Soccer Hall of Fame is still running, still inducting, but without a physical space.

Göteborg Sport's Hall of Fame - nominations for 2011

At the moment, the Sport Museum in Göteborg (Gothenburg) needs candidates for their Hall of Fame to be submitted by the public. A nominee must have been either born or been active for at least five years during their career in the Göteborg district.

Göteborg is commonly known as the Football capital of Sweden and there are quite a few footballers among the 132 previously chosen.

As an ÖIS supporter I nominated Knut "Knatten" Lindberg and Rune Börjesson, although I have just withdrawn my nomination of Lindberg.

Rune Börjesson and fellow striker Agne Simonsson was the dynamic duo of the 1950's ÖIS team. Rune also played 20 national caps between 1958-1961, scoring 17 goals. He was the top goal scorer of the Swedish Top League, Allsvenskan in 1959 and 1960 which earned him a professional spell at Palermo.

Lindberg not only played football for Örgyte IS (ÖIS), where he in the early 1900's won five Swedish Championships. He was also a fine sprinter, holding Swedish record 100 m, 10,6 sec from 1906 til 1936. He won two olympic medals: Silver for Javellin in Athens 1908 and silver in the 4x100 m Relay in Stockholm 1912. All in all he became Swedish champion 28 times.
But the story of Knut Lindberg is not just an epic one of great achievements in sports. Lindberg was a moody, loud drunkard who in 1910 was convicted for manslaughter.

When I found this out I decided that it would not be appropiate that Lindberg, although a character of great interest should be inducted in the Hall of Fame.

This I had to be particular about because at the same time I had insisted that Hall of Fame inductee Viljo Nousiainen should be excluded. Last week when former Swedish Athlete Patrik Sjöberg (who held the world record in High Jump) released his Autobiography, stating that his former coach Nousiainen had abused Sjöberg sexually as a boy.
This story has been confirmed by other men who had Nousiainen as a coach in their childhood.
Patrik Sjöberg represented Örgryte IS, and the club was also the employer of molestor Nousiainen who died in 1999.

Happy 1st May! Football and Socialism

It is of great importance for the governing bodies of Football that the game is totally disconnected from political views and steering. The reality though, is different. Football to great extent is a political instrument as it involves deep feelings of joint identity.

This Intenational Worker's Day, I recommend reading the blog article
Workers of the World United: Football and Socialism,
by an anonymous scribe from the Portsmouth Branch of the Socialist Party.

The image: Tifo of the Communist Fans of AS Livorno