– An Educational Project funded by the EU Erasmus+ Programme –
Football Makes History brings together history educators and youth workers from all over Europe to develop new educational resources that can help young people explore European history and heritage through the lens of football, as well as use football to tackle social exclusion.
Stories
Browse our collection of stories about football history and inclusion. With the history of football being made up of millions of stories, of individuals and communities, of movements and processes, we offer stories that can inspire our cultural conversations today.
Videos
Get to know untold stories where individuals are making history with football. When faced with insurmountable challenges, individuals past and present can use football as a cultural force to foster positive change in society. We honour these individuals and tell their ‘untold’ stories in short videos.
Educational Resources
Explore our innovative educational resources that use football’s history, heritage and legacy to engage young people. The resources include ready-made lesson plans and historical source collections for school history education as well as toolkit with activities for non-formal settings.
Latest video
Let’s talk football history
Welcome to Football Makes History: let’s talk football history
A new platform to talk about our two favorite subjects combined: football and history.
Welcome to Football Makes History: let’s talk football history
A new platform to talk about our two favorite subjects combined: football and history.
Formation for Human Rights
A class of high school history students in Oslo was asked to create an ideal starting XI line-up based on Human Rights. Find out why and how it went.
Mo Salah’s Song to Integration
Prayer days on stadiums, faith rooms and inclusive chants: here is how English football is adapting to a changing world.
Pass, Shoot, Goal! Football in the Jazz Age – a review
A loving fan and musician put together his two passions and created this compilation of tunes from the Jazz Age.
Engage young people with football history
Engage young people through Football Makes History’s own Guidebook and Toolkit for promoting social inclusion in formal education or Non-formal settings
FOOTBALL STORIES Latest
Pass, Shoot, Goal! Football in the Jazz Age – a review
A loving fan and musician put together his two passions and created this compilation of tunes from the Jazz Age.
SPECIALS Latest
On this day
When God was Bulgarian
Today in 1993, one football match connected a rooster, Bulgaria and God.
Football Highlights
What moments in football history have we highlighted in the last month? How do they provide us with historical mirrors to the present?
Reviews
21 short stories of football in Amsterdam
Telling the history of a city through football stories: a celebration of Amsterdam.
SPECIAL Lockdown Football Stories
Football Lockdowns: Smallpox outbreak in 1972
Football Makes History Developer and history teacher Igor Jovanovic wrote for us about other times when Football was stopped like it currently is. This time it is the Smallpox outbreak in Yugoslavia.
Football Lockdowns: Oil Crises 1956 and 1973
Dutch sport historian Jurryt van de Vooren wrote of other times when Football was stopped, like it currently is. This time it’s oil shortages!
Football Lockdowns: Tilburg (NL) 1951
Dutch sport historian Jurryt van de Vooren wrote a historical overview of other times when Football was stopped, like it currently is. Small story of a local epidemic.
Football Lockdowns: World War Two
Dutch sports historian Jurryt van de Vooren wrote a historical overview of other times when Football was stopped like it currently is. The Second World War is our second short piece.
Football Lockdowns: The Spanish Flu of 1918
Dutch sports historian Jurryt van de Vooren wrote for us about other times when Football was stopped like it currently is. Spanish flu of 1918 is the first story.
Life Stories
Football Makes History gathers life stories of unique individuals that help us connect the history of football to diversity and inclusion.
This is Football Lives.
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Latest
We. We are the best
Helping students define nationalism by looking at photos of football matches and reflecting on the main expressions of it in the stadiums.
We. We are the best
Helping students define nationalism by looking at photos of football matches and reflecting on the main expressions of it in the stadiums.
Equal Pay for Equal Play
How is the gender pay gap reflected in women’s football and what can be done to change it? How do we help students reflect on this?
Football, Colonialism, and Migration
How did football evolve over time in both the Congo and Belgium? How has football (environments) been used beyond playing a sport? This is a learning activity to help students explore these topics.
Spread of football as cultural history
Students can explore 19th and 20th century global history through the cultural spread of the game.
Three Presidents and the 1938 Racial Laws in Italy
How to study the impact of national law and policies on everyday life? This resource helps students investigate how the Racial Laws in Italy impacted sport.