Gil Scott Heron, October 3, 2009 in San Francisco (Photo: Adam Turner).
Gil Scott Heron, October 3, 2009 in San Francisco (Photo: Adam Turner).

August in Football

An unexpected football month in 2020 to review the past

As July comes to an end and schools all across Europe close for their well deserved summer break, we continue our #onthisday campaign. In June and July our focus was on the history of the European Championships. So what can you expect from us in August?

Recounting some foundations

In August, a month which is usually almost without football, we will see the Champions League and the Europa League coming to an end. The clubs that are still playing in these tournaments have a rich history or even relatively new. We take a brief look at some of the foundations of some of these clubs.

Some of our highlights

As before, we pay close attention to stories that connect football to social and cultural developments on the continent. Some highlight you can except: 

  • On the 9th of August we will explore the so-called ‘’Deathmatch’’, A football match in the center of conflicting ideologies; between the facts and myths.
  • On the 18th of August we look back at the first black professional footballer for Celtic scoring on his debut. Gil Heron is the father of the legendary black civil rights poet and jazz musician Gil Scott Heron.

On the 25th of August in 2007 Valerenga, a team from Norway played with a shirt with Valerenga against racism– pioneering in football’s anti-racist efforts in their context.

Pass the ball around

Our campaign’s content is almost entirely produced by educators. Each day we aim to deliver interesting mini-stories from football’s rich history. These will be posted on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The content is aimed to support the educational objectives of the Football Makes History project. If you are reading this and have suggestions or ideas for the months ahead, we are most happy to receive those! Help our team tell the stories that matter.

As the UEFA 2020 European Championships got pushed ahead one year, the team of Football Makes History will provide you with a 365-day #onthisday series of posts to help all fans out there to go back in time, think, and reflect.

Otto Nerz, Coach of Germany (Photo: Neil Jensen / Game of the People).
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