The Hibernation of Balls & Boots

Dear readers and fellow Football Museum enthusiasts

You've probably noticed that Balls & Boots hasn't been updated for over a year now.
To be fair an enthusiast website need its enthusiast enthusiastic and to make a long story short, I've been quite fed up with football to be honest.
I am passionate about heritage issues and my team ÖIS here in Gothenburg. It's just been troublesome to keep my own interest up in world football and football museums. And I just don't seem to find the time anymore, working and parenting.

Hopefully you can still use the Balls & Boots site as inspiration and encyclopedia.
Hope to get back soon though.

I've got a wee football museum project going on at the Gothenburg City Museum where I work.

All the best
Pontus

ps. The Balls & Boots email address is not checked regularly. Please email me at pontushw[at]gmail.com on any matter.

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.

German Academy of Football Culture

The next website you should visit is the Deutsche Akademie für Fussball Kultur.
An amazing resource for everyone interested in football in German and European society.
They also have a special page about Football Museums and collection. A real gold mine for Balls & Boots.
It also confirms Germany as the great nation of Football Museums alongside Great Britain.

I also came upon a Deutches Fussball Museum in Berlin. A little surprising because it seems to cover the same themes as the planned DFB Fussball Museum (the national museum of the German FA) in Dortmund.

So, I'll try to investigate further.
Meanwhile I have some German club museums to visit online and, look (guck mal) there seem to be another museum dedicated to a player in progress.
Stay tuned!

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.

Fact File: Borusseum

Borusseum is the Club Museum, of the German Bundesliga club Bourssia Dortmund.

Location: In the North-East-Corner of the Signal Iduna Park, in Dortmund.
Opening year: 19th of December 2008 (the 99th anniversary of the club.)
Annual visitor number: 29 000 (2010)
Collection size: Several thousand, and increasing (about 10% is on display)

One of the great clubs of German and European football, Bourssia Dortmund enjoy a massive support in their home stadium. Currently defending champions of the Bundesliga and has got both a successful history from the game but also troubles with finances.

The Borusseum is a museum from supporters for supporters it partly focuses on the history of the supporters. A museum feature is for instance movies about the choreographies of the supporters.
In the special object exhibit there is the tricot from Lothar Emmerich, which shows spoors of usage of the final match of the European Cup of 1966 against Liverpool FC.
The treasure in the Borusseum treasury is certainly the Champions League Cup (right now the original trench coat from Ottmar Hitzfeld, which he wore in the Champions League final in Munich, is displayed in an exposition in the Wembley stadium).

Other players’ related objects are: the floodlight-tricot, which Reinhold Wosab wore in 1963 against Benfica Lissabon, has its own history (Dortmund won this match in his old stadium, called “Rote Erde”/ “Red Earth” 5-0);  the top scorer trophy Lothar Emmerich got together with Gerd Müller 1966/67; and Emmerich’s shoes he wore as top scorer in the Bundesliga as well as top scorer in the European Cup Winners’ Cup which’ve been gilded later on.

Another object related to the joy of winning are the broken glasses of manager Jürgen Klopp: they were damaged after the match against the FC Bayern Munich in February 2011. Nuri Sahin was so happy about the 3-1 success of Dortmund, that he jumped on the back of Jürgen Klopp so broke his glasses.

As for a classic Borussia Dormund anecdote: the Werner Erdmann brassiere is also on display. In 1947 the whole team of Dortmund was in training camp, because they wanted to be well prepared for the new season. They trained very hard, but they also had a lot of fun. Before the departure back to Dortmund the keeper Willi Kronsbein stole a brassiere from the clothesline of their hotel and put it in the suitcase of his teammate Werner Erdmann. Naturally, he didn’t suspect anything but back at home his wife opened the suitcase and found the brassiere. She immediately thought her husband had had a love affair. Werner Erdmann told her that he was innocent of such allegations, but Mrs. Erdmann was really angry and she went directly to the team meeting and wanted to hear the truth about the bra. After a lot of discussions Willi Kronsbein told her the truth and Werner was no longer suspected by his wife having a love affair. This was the first and only team meeting in the whole history of Borussia Dortmund where ever a woman participated. Therefore the brassiere is in the exhbition.

The Borsseum keep temporary exhibitions once or twice a year. For 2012, one is planned with the topic “The singing of the supporters”. For this exhibition the museum works scientifically together with the University of Paderborn and creatively with the FH of design in Dortmund. 

The museum is run and paid for by the club but also has some sponsors. They bought a tile with their names on it, on the bridge in the entrance hall. The Club’s special department for advancement and supporter activities has also been crucial to the foundation and current activities of the museum. Furthermore private people of fanclubs can donate a sum of 109,09 euros and get a plate, also with their names on a wall in the Boursseum. The thought is that they’ll become a part of the museum forever.

Thanks to Kirsten Behnke, of the Museum Direction (Museumsleitung)

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.

Welcoming the Rapideum

Following two years of planning the Rapid Wien Museum - the Rapideum - opened on 15th December. As mentioned in a previous post the museum holds about 2000 objects and one of the in-depth exhibition features includes the story of SK Rapid Wien during the Nazi period: "Grün-Weiss unterm Hakenkreuz"
More info here on the Rapid Wien's news page
and here on the Rapideum home page.

Balls & Boots welcomes this new member of the football museum family.

Ajax Museum closes until further notice

From the Ajax official website:
Due to maintenance to the main entrance of the Amsterdam ArenA, the Ajax Museum is closed until further notice. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. As soon as there is more information, we will make an announcement on www.Ajax.nl

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.

Rapid Wien soon to open museum

The Austrian club Rapid Wien (that's Vienna to you English lot) is the next football museum to open, by my calculations.
I got in touch with Thorsten Leitgeb, project leader of the Rapid Museum to see how things are getting along.

Q:
When are you to open the museum?

A:
The Rapid Wien Museum is growing and we would like to open it in mid november/the beginning of december.

Q: How is the museum set?

A:
It will be a very small, interactive museum with only 100 squaremeters and that's our tough challlenge: to put 112 years of history into a very small room. As you can imagine we can only feature our club history's special highlights.

Q:
Are any particular episodes from the club's history of special interest?

A:
That would be Rapid Wien's german league title from 1941 which was won under sensitive circumstances, while Austria was part of Hitler's Großdeutschem Reich. We want to tell this tale as part of Austrians history as victims as well as perpetrators and opportunists of the Nazi-Regime and, of course, in the context of Rapid Wien's destiny.

Q:
Many club museums in Germany address the period of the Nazi regime. I understand the mechanisms behind it, that it stirs up stories that need to be told. Do you think that this is something isolated to the football sector or do you find it common in German and Austrian society as well? Is it something you must go through before moving on, on other historical matters?

A:
The period of the Nazi regime still is and must be an issue in the Austrian society. Plenty is refurbished, some is not, but hopefully will soon be. When it comes to football Rapid Wien is the 1st club in Austria who did an academic research to investigate it's own role in these difficult circumstances: http://www.skrapid.at/9610+M5c5a1f4ff58.html
This research will be the basis for the execution in our museum. And yes, me and my colleague Domenico Jacono definitley think that this must be cleared before you can present your club's history to an (international) audience. Especially when you have been successfull in the years 1938-45, as we were.

Q:
Are there any certain Rapid players that will be honoured or highlighted in the museum?

A:
Yes, we will feature 6 Rapid players that will get a special treatment in our museum. Two of them I will reveal:
- Josef "Pepi" Uridil (nickname: The Tank) who was in the 1920s the first football popstar in continental europe, starting in a film and having for example a beer named after him. There even was a popular song written about him ("Heute spielt der Uridil" i.e. "Today plays Uridil").
- Ernst Happel (nickname: Aschyl) and also called Wödmasta - that means world champion, even though he was when teammanager only second with the Netherlands in the World Cup 1978. Also European Cup Winner with Feyenoord Rotterdam in 1970 and with Hamburger SV in 1983.

Balls & Boots wish Thorsten and his colleagues the best of luck and hope for an opening on schedule.

More museums added (September 2011)

Lately there has been a few additions to the overall list of football museums that I provide. Some have been found when searching the web and others are the results of tips that I've recieved. They are both existing museums and planned museums:

Added existing museums:
The BSC Young Boys Museum, in Bern, Switzerland
The Athletic Bilbao Museum, in Bilbao, Spain
The Spanish National Museum, in Madrid, Spain
The Benfica Museum, in Lisbon, Portugal

Added planned museums:
The Olympique Marseille Museum, in France (2014)
The Rapid Wien Museum, in Austria (2011)
The Tottenham Hotspur Museum, in London, England (2012-2013?)
The Aberdeen FC Museum, in Scotland

As for the Marseille Museum, it was previously thought to be an existing museum but this turned out to be false. It is now a trophy room and plans its museum opening in 2014 for their new stadium.
The Tottenham Museum is also to open with their new stadium and I doubt that this construction will be finished for the London Olympics in 2012.
Following some delays the Rapid Wien Museum is to open late this year. More about the Rapid Wien is to come later this week.

New Dissertation: Le football exposé, Les musées de clubs

Mr David-Sean Thomas of the Ecole du Louvre has recently finished his dissertation entitled: “Le football exposé, Les musées de clubs” (Football exposed, club museums)
Balls & Boots has received this fresh dissertation and with understanding about 10% of it all (it’s in French, and outside my linguistic domain) it looks really interesting.

This is what the author himself has to say about his work:
"Concerning my recently written dissertation, my first objective was to understand how football is displayed in museums in general. It quickly appeared that the most relevant structures to be analysed were football club museums.
My problematic is: is there a museographic identity for club museums?
To answer that question I posed mixed theoretical researches and a field analysis in six places : Liverpool FC, Manchester United, Arsenal FC, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Atletico de Madrid. In fact there are no real club museums in France.
The results showed that the same kind of objects and general dialogue are shown in these structures. Trophies, shirts, the importance of success, a nostalgic vision of the past are omnipresent. Some problems are the noticeable like the lack of quality of the conservation, of the scientific approach of the collections or of the pedagogical actions offered.
I really enjoyed this analysis and I am now waiting for the mark given for this work."

Balls & Boots wish Mr Thomas the best and keep fingers crossed for a good mark.

About the author:
David-Sean Thomas, (b. 1986) is a resident of Paris and started his studies in the university of Paul Valery, Montpellier where he earned his Information and communication degree. He then moved to Paris to study history of art in the Ecole du Louvre, located under the famous museum. Finally, he gained a masters degree in museology in that same university, writing two dissertations : the first was about Nicolas Poussin's paintings in the Louvre museum, the second about football in european museums. At the same time, he worked in the National Museum of Sport.

The Shamrock Rovers Heritage Trust

Since 2008 the Heritage Trust of Dublin club Shamrock Rovers has been active. They do not keep a club museum but truly operates in the same manners as other historical societies of football clubs that actually do keep museums.
The aims of the Shamrock Rovers Historical Trust are:

1) To collect, preserve and display club memorabilia in a museum-type setting.

2) To honour past greats who played for the Hoops and also those who stood on the terraces to support their heroes.

3) To organise and run the annual Player of the Year awards night.

The display of club memorabilia in a museum-type setting, judging from the photo differs little from established museum's minor object-based exhibitions.
If you have any Shamrock Rovers items you now know where to turn.

Exhibition: History of Swansea City FC

You still have a chance to visit the Swansea Museum and their exhibition about the history of their local team Swansea City FC called "Proud to be a Swan".

"In this football focused exhibition Swansea Museum commemorates the highs and lows of Swansea City AFC, from the earliest days of the club to present day success.
Fans Memorabilia supports and illustrates the story that deals with players, the ground and the history of the "Swans", including surprising aspects of the life of this great football club."

Roger Gale, exhibitions and events officer at Swansea Museum, said to the BBC:
"What the Swans have achieved in a short space of time is truly magnificent and this is an opportunity for people to celebrate the club and their wonderful heritage."

Exhibition is open until 30 september.
More images from the BBC here

Museo del Calcio: Video Interview

This is an interview with Dr Fino Fini, the director of the Italian Football Museum, Il Museo del Calcio, made by Toscana WebTV. It was produced in october 2009. All in Italian. Enjoy!

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.

Bedtime reading: Fussball und Museum

Most of the book "Die lokal-globale Fussballkultur" (The local-global Football culture) is available online. It was published in 2004 and includes (most of) Martin Wörner's text "Fussball und Museum" which is both a background to the subject and a plead for a German Football Museum (which is now underway).
A good read and a sound way to practise your German skills.

Follow this link to read (p.237-248)

Clip from the River Plate Museum

This is a youtube video clip of a tour from The River Plate Museum and Stadium. It was posted in August 2010. Enjoy!

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.

Museum Ball II: Feyenoord

This 1890 ball is the oldest object in the Feyenoord club museum. The leather ball was donated by Kevin Moore, the director of the National Football Museum, Preston when Feyenoord opened its museum on 15th July 2008. The ball originates from the FIFA Collection that is kept by the National Football Museum, England.

Feyenoord was founded in 1908.

Scottish Cup is the oldest national football trophy

On their brand new website the Scottish Football Museum highlights the fact that Guinness World Records has declared that the Scottish Cup of 1874 is the oldest national trophy.

Guinness World Records have bestowed two awards on the Scottish Cup marking the trophy's importance within the heritage of world football. First won in 1874, the trophy is officially the oldest national football trophy in the world and the oldest trophy in Association football.

Clip from the San Siro Museum

There is a clip available on Youtube.com, that's a quick tour of the San Siro stadium and the San Siro museum. The museum segment starts at 5:00. Enjoy


Posted on Youtube in april 2009.

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.

Fact File: Norwegian Football Museum

Fotballmuseet is the Norwegian Football Museum, of The Football Association of Norway.

Location: in the Norwegian national stadium Ullevaal, Oslo
Opening year: 2002 (when the Norway FA had their 100-years anniversary)
Annual visitor number: 12 000
Collection size: 250 objects (about 80% is on display)

Although not one of the great footballing nations, Norway's genuine passion for the game is consistent and admirable.
The Norwegians are, as other Scandinavians, generally great anglophiles and the English Premier League has a tradition of immense interest, just like in Sweden. Therefore objects related to the Norweigan players who have made it in the UK are of special interest to the museum such as the shirt and boots of Morten Gamst Pedersen.
The most important object in that category is undeniably the FA cup medal of goalkepper Erik Thorsvedt who won the cup in 1991 with Tottenham Hotspurs.

Unarguably the biggest success of the Norwegian National Team is the third place from the Berlin Olympics 1936, having beaten the host nation Germany in the quarter final 2-0. A splendid achievement. The bronze medals from 1936 (beating Poland in the bronze game 3-2 after a Brustad hat-trick) are rightly regarded as the museum's finest objects alongside the very ball from the bronze match:
The ball belonged to the goal keeper, Henry Tippen Johansen. He gave the ball away to a friend in the 1950’s and the ball laid in a garage for over 30 years. When the ball was found again, the family’s dog used it as a toy until they realized that this was one of the most precioused footballhistorical items in Norway. The museum got the ball when the Football museum opened in 2002.

In recent years Norway has performed with mixed results in the big tournaments but made a great upset in the World Cup of 1998 when they beat Brazil 2-1 in the group stage. The yellow shoes of Kjetil Rekdal who scored Norway's second from the penalty spot is a symbol of the Norwegian National Team peak of success in the 1990's.

Football boots of an amusing alternative kind: The National team manager Egil "Drillo" Olsen always used a special pair of green rubber boots in the 90’s. The boots became sort of a trademark for the Norwegian team. The museum has these boots in the museum and they have also been used as a logo for the Museum.

Future plans for the Norwegian Football Museum include a school project and an exhibition about Ullevaal stadium and a smaller exhibition about about the work that the Norwegian football federation are doing in Vietnam (“Football for all in Vietnam”-project) opened in May 2011.

Thanks to Tommy Christensen, director, Fotballmuseet.

At this time our deepest sympathies goes out to the Norwegian people after the tragic events of July 2011.

Degerfors applies for money

Swedish club Degerfors IF is the holder of the only football museum in Sweden. It is a classic club of the industrial era and with the decline in industry the football team has given very uneven performances for quite some time now. Lately though, the team enjoys good form in the Swedish second division.
The municipality of Degerfors are like most Swedish countryside municipalities of today under great financial strain. So, in order for the clubs to meet with Swedish FA regulations of stadium recquirements, Degerfors has applied for extra funds from the region council (reports Karlskoga-Kuriren).

These funds would include money to spend on the refurbishment of the stadium of Stora Valla. The Degerfors football museum is not located in the stadium but in a building nearby but the notion is to move the museum, perhaps not into a stand but surely in the stadium's own area.

More on this as the projects develops.

Aberdeen plans for club museum

Aberdeen FC are set to build a new stadium holding 21'000 spectators. The £40 million project is underway with its aim to be an iconic landmark and an important gateway to Aberdeen.
The stadium plan includes a club shop, a gym, a café and gladly, a museum.

Read more on BBC Scotland

We hope to address these museum plans as the project develops.

Museum Ball I: Society for outdoor games

The collection number GM:35554 stands for a lovely old football from the beginning of the 20th century. It belonged to the "Society for outdoor games" in Göteborg/Gothenburg, Sweden (founded in 1893). The ball is made of leather, weighs 420 grams and is 19 centimetres across.
It was aquired to the former History Museum in Göteborg in 1977 which collections has been reorganised into the Göteborg City Museum.

This ball featured in the 2004 exhibition "Handens Intelligens" (Intelligence of the Hand) at the Göteborg City Museum

Exhibition: Sexuality and Football

Germany is the host of the FIFA Women’s World Cup and in realtion to the tournament the Gay Museum of Berlin (Schwules Museum) is to open a new exhibition, on June 23rd, entitled: On the other side - Artistic throw-ins to FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011. (Andererseits - Künstlerische Einwürfe zur Frauenfußball WM 2011).

The Museum has invited artists, interested in using the means at their disposal to research the conflict between sex, (homo) sexuality and football. The exhibition will raise the “flags” and broach the subject of football as a field of “doing gender”, as a playground for social and cultural issues upon which the debate about societal gender assignment is also fought very heatedly.

A catalogue will be published. Among other events Tanja Walther-Ahrens will present her new book “Seitenwechsel” (Changing Sides).

Opening: Thursday, 23rd June 2011, 7 p.m.
Location: Schwules Museum, Ground Floor and Second Floor (Entrance 1st Yard)
Mehringdamm 61, 10961 Berlin
Duration: 24th June until 25th September 2010
Project Manager: Dr. Birgit Bosold

Fact File: Real Madrid Museum

The Real Madrid Musem

Real Madrid C.F is a Spanish club, founded in 1902, playing in the Primera division, also known as La Liga.

Location: in their home ground Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid
Opening year: 1999
Annual visitor number: 700 000
Collection size: 8000 objects (about 5% is on display)

For successful football campaigns it is hard to find any club that has a greater record than the Madrid whites of Real. Even impossible. And Real has the trophy to prove it in their museum: FIFA awarded them a grand trophy for being voted "the Best Club of the Century". Other priceless trophies are the original European cup and the first victory, the 1905 Spanish Cup.

Perhaps not the biggest win but surely the biggest and heaviest trophy is one made out as a castle, wighing 75 kg and 1,5 metres high.

Two players really stand out in the Real Madrid saga, both are represented in the museum collections and exhibitions with numerous shirts and boots: Alfredo di Stefano and Rául.
Especially legendary are the last boots of di Stefano. Other player-related objects are gloves of keeper Iker Casillas and the boots of Peda Mijatovic, worn in the 1998 Champions League final.

The museum's collections also holds objects and archive material of the 25 other sport sections of Real Madrid.

Thanks to Rubén Rueda, Real Madrid

Read more about the Real Madrid Museum at their website

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

Fact File: Queen of South Museum

Queen of South Museum

The Queen of South is a Scottish league club, founded in 1919, currently playing in Division One.

Location: in the main stand of their home ground Palmerston Park, Dumfries.
Opening year: 1994
Annual visitor number: 400 to 600
Collection size: 1000 objects (almost all are on display)

Museum objects include club player related artifacts like the Scotland top of Billy Houliston and boots of Bobby Black, both local legends. They also have a match shirt worn by Brazilian star Zico in the 1982 World Cup Finals.
The most impressive object among the silverware is the Southern Counties Charity Cup that dates back to the 1880’s. Queen of South has won that cup no less than sixteen times.
One of the less predictable objects in the collection is a piece of fire damaged wood from the old stand fire from 1964.

Queen of South is struggling severely with their finances at the moment. If the club can succeed with their plans to build a new stand, more room will be given to the club museum.

Thanks to Ian Black, Museum Curator, Queen of South

Read more about Queen of South on their website
and about their financial situation on BBC, here and here

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

Swedish club Utsiktens BK lost everything in the fire

Disaster struck the Göteborg football club Utsiktens BK on Sunday night when their club cabin went up in flames. Staff, fans and players were devastated. The cabin was one of many that are found next to the sports facilities of Ruddalen.

None of the other cabins were damaged. The suburb where Ruddalen, Västra Frölunda is located has been tormented by vandalism and worries for some time. Young punks have been setting cars on fire and assaulting the police and fire brigade. The city of Göteborg has lately been troubled with these scenes but lacks the ability to find a solution.

Utsiktens BK built their club cabin in the 1970's and kept pretty much their entire property there, kits, boots, balls, computers, etc. Sadly they have also lost the material culture of their history and heritage. All of their achives, old photographs, pennants and trophies. It's all gone.
To great extent Utsiktens BK has lost the physical evidence of their history and achievements. This is truly shameful and will scar the collective identity of Utsiktens BK. They are a small club but their loss of proud artefacts and tokens of fond memories is just as great as if it had happened to one of the big clubs.

The game in the Swedish Division 2 (fourth division) against Kållered om Monday was cancelled. Utsiktens BK was formed in 1935 and their current manager is Glenn Hysén, former central defender of Liverpool FC and the Swedish National Team.
A couple of weeks ago his son, who playes for Utsikten, Anton Hysén came out as the first openly homosexual professional footballer in Sweden. It was a milestone in Swedish Football.

Picture: The remains of the Utsiktens club cabin on monday morning, from GöteborgsPosten

Copa del Rey - a museum piece in pieces

Real Madrid won the Spanish Cup, Copa del Rey this week against archrivals Barcelona. It has been reported that during the celebrations defender Sergio Ramos dropped the trophy in the street from the player bus which accidentally ran the trophy over.
The trophy is now in bad shape but is to be repaired before being displayed in a trophy case in the Real Madrid Museum.

Read more here (timesunion.com)

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

The question remains: Who needs who?

“ -museums need football far more than football needs museums” - Kevin Moore (Museums and popular culture, 1997)

One of the central qoutes of the museological discussion on Football and Museums adressed in "Football is Forever - the establishment and purposes of Football Museums".

What do you think?
Does museums need football more than football needs museums?
Or does Football need museums more than museums need football?

Two key issues:
1) Museums need the popularity and potential diversity of football audiences
2) Football needs the structure of museums to care for the memories and histories in an escalating development where a different past is left behind in the race for modern football.

Truly a valid discussion topic for museum and football experts alike.

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.