The River Plate museum wants to go further than football

How is River’s history remembered? A visit to their museum

Stories, lives, educational resources

What's New

Players and officials at the train home 06-06-1924 (Photo: KNVB).

Specials

Rails to Paris

As the sporting world prepares for the 2024 Paris Olympics, we look at 100 years ago and the age of rail.

On This Day

The Ghost Match

The Soviet Union refused to send its team to play in Pinochet’s stadium, and the General decided the match had to be played anyway.

Daejeon, WC 2002, Round of 16: South Korea-Italy. Local supporters remember Italy’s defeat against North Korea (and what about political rivalry between Koreas?!).

Stories

Spies against communism

How South Korean intelligence created a victorious team to challenge Northern football supremacy, and thus opened the road to an efficient sport system.

FMH SOCIAL MEDIA

Feeding your feed with football.

Stories that score

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Paolo Maldini, AC Milan 1996/97 (Source: UEFA Champions League, #FlashbackFriday Tweet. May 19, 2017).

Fergus Suter played for Darwen and Blackburn Rovers from 1878 to 1889.

Footballers of Hajduk Split and Red Star Belgrade after the match was stopped (Photo: MN Press).

Lives

Paolo Maldini

Paolo Maldini’s career seems too good to be true, stylish on and off the field, his life has never been touched by failure or scandal.

Lives

Fergus Suter

Fergus Sutter was one of the first (semi)professional footballers, playing against aristocratic players. A story of origins.

Stories

On May 4th 1980 Yugoslav communist leader and lifelong president Marshal Tito passed away while the country was watching the game between Hajduk Split and Red Star Belgrade. Ten years later, another game siding a Croatian club against a Serbian club on May 13th 1990, had the country on the brink of collapse.

Quote of the week

What I know most surely in the long run about morality and obligations, I owe to football

Albert Camus, 1957.

Must watch videos

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The Mad Grandma (Photo: COPA90 Stories).

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The Mad Grandma: Botafogo’s 83-year-old superfan

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The Mad Grandma: Botafogo’s 83-year-old superfan

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The amazing story of Sierra Leone’s Amputee Team

Playing

The Climb to Equality

Playing

The Right to Play

Playing

FC Union Berlin: A rebellious football club in a rebellious city

Odd Frantzen and the Norway team at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

Playing

The football signpost to WWII

David Goldblatt in his apartment in Bristol (Photo: FMH).

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Football: A People’s History of Europe?

David Goldblatt in his studio in Bristol.

Playing

Why Teach Football History?

Playing

The Most Dangerous Game of Football: Calcio Storico

Diversity & discrimination

Thematic tips

Italy’s victory in the France Rimet Cup of 1938.

Lives

Luigi Colàusig

The story of the first multiple scorer in a World Cup final: his surname had been changed by fascist authorities.

First World Cup participation for The Atlas Lionesses (Photo: Fifa.com).

Morocco’s womens team breaking through

Morocco’s maiden appearance at the Women’s World Cup: more than history being made?

Women’s Football: the new player in the sport industry

Women’s football is becoming profitable and attracting new fans and investors

Winnie McKenna

Ambassador for Women’s Football

Students talk with FC Den Bosch player (photo: DTV Nieuws).

One full schoolweek on football and Europe?

When a teacher organised an entire week to combine football and Europe

TOP READER RATING SCORES

Natalie Portman, one of the founders of Angel City FC.

Angel City FC: An in-vitro football sensation

100+ life stories (FMH Photo collage). Credits: Ebru Köksal; John Blankenstein (Photo: Bart Molendijk / Dutch National Archives); Otto “Tull” Harder (Photo: Dutch National Archive); Petra Landers (Photo: Heinz Reinders / Wikimedia Commons).

Learning history in 100 football life stories

Travellers to the match Netherlands-Belgium at the Haarlem Train Station (Photo: Municipality Haarlem).

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All aboard the train

Life Stories

Football Makes History gathers life stories of unique individuals that help us connect the history of football to diversity and inclusion.

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Robert Whitehead

Spreading the Game

Fritz Löhner-Beda

Zionism, Football, Vienna

Marcinkus rushing to the ball, 18th of May 1928 (Photo: Svetys).

Romualdas Marcinkus

Flying for Lithuania

Josep Sunyol

Casualty of Spain's Civil War

Educational Resources

Last 30-days engaging resources & collections on Football Makes History

What does identity have to do with football?

An interactive activity connecting football affiliations with personal identity in various historical contexts.

Soldiers in Congo in uniform, approx 1910-1925 (Source: Collectie Stichting Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen).

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.

French national team in 2018 (Photo: Кирилл Венедиктов, Wikimedia Commons).

Football as a portal to French colonial history

Learn about colonialism and migration by tracing the origins of French football players.

Fair Play Screenshot (Source: Fair Play | Anne Frank House).

Educational game about dealing with discrimination

An educational game about dealing with discrimination and confronts young people with their own choices. The players get to react to discrimination and have the choice to either let it happen or do something about it. The game developed by the Anne Frank House is available in several languages.

“El Clásico”, 2009 (Photo: Alejandro Ramos / Source: Wikimedia Commons).

El “Clásico” and Nationalism

Linking the history of Spain, football and nationalism through a world-famous example of Real Madrid - Barcelona rivalry.

A mob football match played at London’s Crowe Street (Source: WikiCommons).

Spread of football as cultural history

Students can explore 19th and 20th century global history through the cultural spread of the game.

General Moscardó hands over the Copa del Generalísimo, 1939 (Photo: Joseph Brangulí / ABC de Sevilla).

Nationalism in Spanish Football in the 20th Century

A lesson plan putting the Spanish Civil War and football in perspective.

Boban's mythical kick murals (Photo: Dario Brentin)

Did a game of football start a war?

Learning activity teaching students historical causality by assessing the role of the 1990 “Maksimir riots” in the unfolding of the Yugoslav Wars.

FC Carl Zeiss Jena - FC Berlin, April 7, 1990 (Photo: Jan Peter Kasper | Source: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1990-0408-011 | CC-BY-SA 3.0 - cropped).

Football and Hooliganism

Teaching students about the causes of football hooliganism through the analysis of case studies and development of potential solutions.

Educational resources

Latest learning activities & collections

Athletic Club Bilbao and Real Sociedad carrying the Ikurinna, the Basque flag.

Learning Activities

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.

The US National Team lifts the world cup in 2019 (Photo: AppaIoosa on Flickr).

Learning Activities

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?

Source Collections

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.