National Football Museum has kicked off

On July 6th it finally happened: The National Football Museum in Manchester, England opened its doors, or turnstiles rather.
The whole weekend seems to have been a great success. Both the permanent exhibitions and the temporary ones seem to have been highly appreciated among visitors as well as the family activities.

The first temporary exhibition is: Moving Into Space: Football and Art in West Africa

"A thought-provoking exhibition featuring the work of leading contemporary West African artists whose art is inspired by football to explore wider social issues. The exhibition features a wide range of work including painting, sculpture, installation, textiles, and photography.

Today, football is a worldwide phenomenon with an estimated 715 million people watching the 2006 World Cup final. The game has spread to all parts of the globe and in West Africa it is part of the fabric of society, from the street games of children to the large amounts spent on national teams by governments seeking to gain popularity and electoral advantage."

Read more about the exhibition here.
Moving Into Space: Football and Art in West Africa6 July  - 31 December 2012

Sneak preview of the National Football Museum

I recently had a delightful trip to Liverpool and Manchester, UK where I got the chance to visit the National Football Museum one month before opening.
The behind-the-scenes tour was highly interesting and I can assure you that this museum will raise the standard immensly for all the Football Museums worldwide.
I am especially impressed with the balance in content, the well-motivated choices and the fresh design of both the building and the exhibitions.

Good luck for the opening on July 6th!
/Pontus Forslund, Balls & Boots

Thanks to Kevin Moore, Director of the National Football Museum who generously gave the tour and for a rewarding discussion afterwards.
I can't wait to come back and see the whole thing up and running

Some pictures from my visit:



One of my favourites: Ray Kennedy





The official Adidas ball of World Cup 1970

Newcastle United heritage is awarded grants

Newcastle United FC reports that grants have been awarded for a heritage project including an exhibition in the Discovery Museum in Newcastle as well as an education and outreach programme. The National Lottery Fund and the Premier League Community Fund are awarding grants in the total of nearly £170'000.

The project Toon Times kicks off in september 2012 and the exhibition is planned for October 2014 - June 2015. The whole project aims to attract 360'000 visitors.

Read the news here

Just a year ago there was another Newcastle United exhibition in the Discovery Museum: NUFC: For the love of Football.

There seems to be a strong connection between the club and the Discovery Museum. It is argued that a city of Newcastle size with only one professional football team enjoys much more support from the city council as well as the local community. This gives them a much greater chance to explore their heritage than other clubs in other cities that holds rival teams such as Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield or Glasgow.

Museum Ball III: Walsall

This ball is on display in the Walsall Leather Museum, England. It is the match ball from Walsall FC's biggest game: when they beat the league champions Arsenal in the third round of the 1933 FA cup, 2-0. The game was played 14th january 1933 in Walsall's (nicknamed The Saddlers) Fellows Park.

Walsall supporter Steve Blake writes about the game:
In the first ten minutes, Arsenal were awarded many free kicks, and Walsall held the “Gunners” to a goalless draw at half-time. In the second half, Walsall’s centre forward,Gilbert Alsop headed in the first goal from a corner. They say the cheering was heard two miles away! Arsenal missed many chances untill Tommy Black lost his cool and the resulting foul produced a penalty, and Sheppard scored to put the result beyond doubt. Herbert Chapman, the Arsenal manager, was in a state of shock and promptly banned Black from Highbury, and then a few weeks later transferred him to Plymouth.

When will the Manchester City Museum rise again?

Almost three years ago, in May 2009, The Manchester City Museum closed their doors to the public. The headline was "Museum closes to rise again".

"The club museum at the City of Manchester Stadium is going to get bigger and better, with plans in the pipeline for an exciting project that will reflect and cherish the club's rich heritage."

Three years later, judging by the MCFC website, the museum is still closed. An email from Balls & Boots has been sent for an update of this state.

Date set for the National Football Museum: 6 July

The National Football Museum of England has set a date for their opening: Friday 6 July.
This was stated in their web-based newsletter distributed today.

"The museum is home to the biggest and best football collection in the world, and will be filled with exciting, interactive exhibits for all the family. Inside, you'll be able to explore how the rules set out in England in the 19th Century grew into the world's biggest sport and how football has affected everything from politics, to social change, to art, fashion and the media."
More can be read on their website's article on the matter: National Football Museum.

Leeds museum venture gets going

Earlier this year it was reported that Leeds United were considering the establishment of a club museum in a newly developed stand of the stadium Elland Road. In June these plans were place before the councillors of Leeds and now in november the project moves into the next phase where appointed curator Helen Castle is documenting the huge number of objects and archive material in the club's possession.
And now, Leeds United has also made a public appeal for club artifacts, via local press "Yorkshire Evening Post".

People with United memorabilia which they think deserves a place in the
spotlight are asked to contact Shirley Whitehead on the YEP newsdesk on
+44 0113 238 8917 or Helen Castle on +44 0113 367 6320.

The Leeds United Museum will cover about 400 square metres in the East stand of Elland Road and plans, not without ambition, to open in early 2012.

Pride of the English National Football Museum

The National Football Museum of England has launched a new website for the countdown of the opening in early 2012. It is a visually appealing site that wants user participation.
Follow the progress on their news blog.
One of the entries includes an interesting museological statement:

"We're proud that, as museum of the national game, we can reach people who wouldn't normally give museums a chance."

This sets the National Football Museum in a wider museological and strategical context which to my knowledge was also a cornerstone when the museum was housed in Preston.
Now, can this be true that football museum visitors differs from visitors of other museums? And is this probability higher in the United Kingdom than in other countries?
Will visits to football museums generate demographically diverse visits to other museums?
And do museum lovers attend football games?

Sadly, with the new museum website there is a lot of interesting information missing online about the museum collections for instance. We wish a speedy return.

Football in the heart of Portsmouth

Perhaps the second best thing to a museum of its own, The City Museum of Portsmouth keeps a permanent local football exhibition: ‘Football in the City: A space in the heart of Portsmouth’

Football in the City is an exciting and interactive permanent gallery space devoted to the 'beautiful game'.

The gallery space will be regularly changed and updated with new material. Currently on display are rare items such as both footballs from the 1939 and 2008 FA Cup Finals alongside contemporary exhibits such as an interactive video system allowing people to record their memories and stories about football.

National Football Museum, England will open in 2012

You'll all know that the The National Football Museum of England is to open in Manchester following the move of its original home in Preston.
The opening of the museum has been delayed and is not to be in the autumn of 2011 as previously reported.
As stated on their website and twitter page the National Football Museum is set to open in early 2012. A date is yet to be confirmed.

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.

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

Museum Boots V: Williams

The Swindon Museum & Art Gallery holds a pair of boots in their collection that belonged to Fanny Williams. They are made of brown leather with leather studs in size five. She was born in 1894 and played for the Swindon Town Ladies team in the 1920's. Not much is known about her career and even her interest in Football.

From the BBC article (A History of the world):
Ladies football developed during the First World War. Employees of munitions factories formed teams to play against each other. Many of these teams disbanded at the end of the war. However, in some areas, ladies football developed firmer roots and continued into the 1920s. Despite opposition and the Football Association banning ladies football on their grounds, the English Ladies Football Association was formed in 1921. The Ladies Association set up a national Challenge Cup competition in 1922 which was won by Stoke Ladies FC.

Click here for the Swindon Town FC website

Modern Football needs Museums to promote Nostalgia

Museums have a considerable place in the football world, in terms of promoting history and trademarks. The history displayed at football museums, especially at club museums have often been described as being one that promotes the past highlighting successes, wins and past glories.
Discussing history only in positive terms creates and ideal image of the past commonly known as nostalgia.

Mark Bushell, at the National Football Museum in England, has written his dissertation about the UK heritage industry, nostalgia and football terrace culture, in which he aims to establish whether football supporters have developed a need for nostalgia as a result of the commercialism, globalisation, bourgeoisification and the social and economic disruptions that has affected football in recent years.

The aftermath of the three arena disasters at Bradford, Heysel and Hillsborough in the middle and late 80’s led to what is known as the Taylor report. This report recommended all-seat arenas which led to extensive refurbishments among the stadiums in the UK where more than 75% predated the First World War.
This meant huge costs, as the clubs had to pay themselves, and some clubs were forced to share home grounds.

When the FA Premier League was created in 1992, the top teams received a £304 million TV contract with British Sky Broadcasting which was the starting point for an escalating market and enormous sums of money in television revenues. The clubs have been developing in to business companies with shareholders demanding profits and with ridiculous player salaries, from the £15-20 000 a year, fifteen years ago to £30 000 a week for the top players.

Needless to say, the fans have been marginalised and have to pay a high price to be loyal to their teams. Chelsea raised the price of their season ticket almost eight times in six years and prices with other clubs have also been raised several hundred per cent (probably more now since 2000 when Bushell wrote his dissertation) and the loyal supporters are declining in attendance for corporate sponsors and wealthy fans who experience football as leisure (Bushell, 2000).

The trend is not as clear in other countries but it is apparent that the business aspect of football is rapidly increasing on the expense of the sport and all the smaller clubs. The past, for many fans and supporters does seem like a better place and the times before Heysel, Bradford and Hillsborough are remembered with affection. Football museums can indeed be argued to function as a place for nostalgia where fans and supporters can be taken back to the days of old.
- excerpt from "Football is Forever", 2006.

Note: Today, 22 years ago, the tragedy at Hillsborough struck. 15 april, 1989
Read more on BBC

Display of Football during wartime

Came across a temporary football exhibition at The Royal Air Force Museum in London: "Tin Hats and Football Boots."

From the Royal Air Force Museum website:
This display explores the contribution made by various members of Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal Football Clubs to the Royal Air Force and Air Raid Precautions during the Second World War whilst examining how important regular competitive football was to the upkeep of the capital’s morale.

Ellen Solall, football fan and curator:
"It was only whilst conducting research into local history for a Museum project that I realized how integral both Clubs were to London’s war effort. For 90 minutes both players and spectators could escape the horror of war and life would, for a brief period, assume an air of normality – all important for maintaining morale and a reminder of more peaceful times."

"Tin Hats and Football Boots" is on display until 4th July 2011.

Design agency Music to brand the English National Football Museum

It was announced that Manchester design agency Music is to brand the English National Football Museum. In accordance with the re-opening of the museum later this year in Manchester, following the move from Preston, the National Football Museum will have a new graphic profile. See more of Music's work on their website http://www.designbymusic.com/ Read more here on the "Drum" website The Museum at Manchester's Urbis Building is due to open later this year, with a targeted advertising. Music’s approach to developing the brand identity for National Museum Football has involved creating a flexible system, which enables the museum to reflect the breadth and diversity of football’s appeal, to football fans and non-fans alike.

Moving the English National Football Museum

Almost a year and a half ago, it was reported that the National Football Museum of Preston, England was to be moved to Manchester. When the decision was made final it was not an uncontroversial one. Preston and Lancashire officials claimed to be treated wrongly and put forward the heritage value of Preston as venue for the National Football Museum as it is the place for England's oldest club. However, they city and region lacked the ability to fund the museum and the trustees of the museum got their relocation to Manchester.

The move will presumably attract more visitors than in Preston, which is also one of the major reasons for the move. The aim of 400 000 visitors a year is four times the latest average visitor number in Preston. The National Football Museum is set to open in the autumn of 2011 in the Urbis exhibition centre, Manchester.

And there are talks if the current museum, in Preston, will remain open as a secondary site, with a smaller number of exhibits and items in storage. That will depend on extra funding being found.

Museum Boots III: Zola

Museum boot rather is found in the Chelsea FC Museum, London. They were specially made for Gianfranco Zola's 300rd game in 2003 when Chelsea played Blackburn and lost 2-1. The brand is Line and the boot is worth £300-500.

Museum Boots II: Bell

These boots belonged to Colin Bell of Manchester City FC. Colin Bell MBE was born in Helseden, county Durham in 1946 and joined Manchester City in 1966 after three seasons with Bury FC. By many he is regarded as City's best player ever and has won the league, the FA cup and the league cup. He played 48 caps for England and 394 games for Manchester City. Colin Bell wore these Adidas boots in his last match for City in May 1979.
They can be seen at the Manchester City FC Museum

Debate in Bradford Museum

The Bradford City FC Museum - Bantamspast - hosted a lively debate the other week about the city's new sports venue Odsal Sports Village. The event attracted many interested visitors. The Odsal Sports Village foremost affect the rugby team Bradford Bulls but Bradford City FC might be forced to move from their home stadium Valley Parade, due to financial reasons. Dave Baldwin, Bradford City’s chief executive, stated that if the rent isn't reduced or a scheme to buy the stadium can be arranged, Bradford City FC has to seriously consider moving their home games to Odsal. Although fans are reluctant to move from Valley Parade (where the club museum it placed), it will surely come down to economics. Bradford City FC is chasing promotion in League Two at the moment. For more information, click here (Bantamspast homepage)