The Football Club Exhibitions

Museums in towns address a wide variety of subjects. The new ICOM definition of what a museum is stresses the public and participatory nature of museums as spaces that stimulate conversation, inspiration and learning. Museums are nowadays much more than buildings preserving and presenting their collections. This change has also resulted in an increased interest by museums to design their exhibition with the citizens and learners in mind.

It is therefore no surprise that football, as an appealing aspect of modern culture, has found its place into a wide variety of museums both permanent as well as (part of) specific temporary ones. City museums, for example, have taken up exhibitions around the local football history and culture. Art and design museums have created exhibitions around the aesthetics of football. Memorial museums have brought in sport and football where relevant to the historical context of their locations. And it goes without saying that sport museums have included football into their programmes. Such endeavours stimulate new conversations among wider audiences. Yet, (most) professional football clubs rarely take the lead on the creation of such exhibitions.

A day in the life of FC Town

Today is the grand opening of a new exhibition at the Town’s central museum. FC Town is proud to have collaborated with the museum staff over the last year to prepare a unique programme. We don’t exactly know where the idea was born, but we do know that the new museum curator is an active supporter of FC Town, and that the club has already done some work with the museum around the recent commemoration activities. The idea became a real project once FC Town’s heritage and community outreach department brought in the idea to connect the club’s upcoming 125 year anniversary with the museum’s new ambition to be the place to host all of the town’s (local) stories.

Inclusion, and the idea that no matter who you are, you can be a supporter of FC Town and be welcomed, is a core value of the club as well as the museum. The queue outside shows the diversity of audiences. These people are not only eager to engage with some of the club’s unique objects, but have also been actively invited by the museum to come and share their stories and relations to football and to FC Town. More regular visitors of the museum are interested to find how the exhibition also deals with difficult topics around the current and historical presence of FC Town in their community. After all, the memories of recent homophobic and racist incidents and violence on matchdays is not far away.

Forms

At Football Makes History, we recognise football exhibitions as one of the Key Practices for engaged heritage work. With regard to this practice, we want to know:

• How are such exhibitions organised?
• What added value do they create for both football clubs when they are actively involved and/or for museums and other heritage institutions (such as city archives or libraries)? 

Exhibitions may come in many shapes and sizes. They can offer interactions, or be more focused on presenting text, sound and vision. They can be immersive in terms of experiences or more driven toward objects being displayed. They can be large in terms of the amount of content and/or space available, or small and focused. They can be mainstreamed inside a heritage institute, or pop-up in an unexpected place (e.g. shopping centre, city square, etc.). They can be complemented with added community programmes, such as school visits, online versions and cultural events, or not.

Football is a large and complex sector in terms of organisations and their various initiatives to create and/or contribute to exhibitions. Football clubs may or may not have their own museums and exhibition spaces. But also national football associations (FA’s) sometimes support national football museums. Continental football (con)federations, like UEFA) as well as the global governing bodies like FIFA, or the Olympic Committee will have museums and exhibitions. 

In this open article we discuss several examples of exhibitions by, with or around football clubs and/or football organizations. We are especially interested in such exhibitions where organisations other than the club have a leading or active facilitative role. We hope these may inspire other football club communities to reflect upon their practices and/or to try out new actions; and we are happy to add your reflections and/or suggestions to this article as well!

Form 1: Heritage institutions exhibiting local football history and culture

City museums and/or archives aim to foster a sense of belonging to the locality. Whether their focus is on art, design, history or society, they would recognise the cultural value of football because of the impact has on citizens. Moreover, they will seek to leverage this added value in alignment with their missions and ambitions. A common desire is to connect different audiences: Those who love football and those who love culture and history – which, evidently, are never mutually exclusive archetypes. In addition, as collection managing organisations, there would also be the desire to enrich the knowledge about existing collections through new topics for storytelling and research (such as football).

In 2022 the London Design Museum (United Kingdom) organised an exhibition on the role of design in football entitled Football: Designing the Beautiful Game. This exhibition centred on the design as a lens to look at the historical development of football, showcasing over 500 objects, films, and interviews. It highlights sporting performance, kit evolution, and stadium architecture, and legendary players of the game. Produced in collaboration with the National Football Museum, it went beyond its intent, it was further developed into a travelling exhibition, which in 2025 and beyond remains actively touring!

Kunsthal, an art museum/gallery space in Rotterdam (The Netherlands), in 2000, in the run-up and during the EURO2000 tournament, also put together an exhibition entitled Ieder z’n voetbal (To each his own football) looking at various artistic interpretations of football. With three professional football clubs, a vibrant grassroots football scene, and the coming of the EURO2020, the museum intended to bring different publics together. This was far from achieved, as visitors stayed away, and the museum was criticised, in Dutch newspaper NRC for example, for joining the football hype without engaging football organisations themselves.

In 2015, the Amsterdam Museum (The Netherlands), presented a special exhibition connecting Football and Religion entitled Voetbal Hallelujah (Soccer Hallelujah!). This exhibition arose from an informal gathering of city museums of different European towns, and indeed went on to become a travelling exhibition to those towns – each time incorporating local dimensions. For example, at the Historisches Museum Basel, the curators found out, the local panels tended to stress more the positive aspects of football, and refrain from addressing societal challenges. The exhibition went on to travel to (and obtain local adaptations in) Lyon’s Musée Gadagne and Luxembourg’s Musée d’Histoire and Luik/Liège’s Musee de la Vie wallonne in 2017. The announced adaptations in Barcelona Museu d’Història de Barcelona and Moscow’s Museum of Moscow in 2018 seemed to have not taken place. The Barcelona museum, however, did put up a large local football exhibition in 2021-2023 entitled Barcelona & Futbol.

The exhibition leaves behind a legacy of very interesting blog posts which reflect on the high level of collaboration with football fans as new audiences, for example one on the logo of Ajax. Another blog by curator Annemarie de Wildt shares stories of novel museum visitors.

In 2023-2024, the Ruhr Museum collaborated with the German National Football Museum on a photography exhibition entitled Myth and Modernity. Football in the Ruhr Area. In this special exhibition, which was planned in the run-up to the Euro2024 in Germany, the social, cultural and economic history of the area’s industrialisation, and the regional identities connected to mining, is explored through football.

Sometimes the exhibitions include football aspects as part of a historical and/or contemporary narrative. The AfricaMuseum in Tervuren (Belgium), includes football from a colonial perspective and invites its visitors to think about how racism remains very alive in football. It also seeks to motivate visitors to seek for the capabilities of football to build bridges among people. The Silesian Museum in Katowice (Poland), includes football in its chronological history exhibitions to give visitors insights into aspects of daily life under communism, which can also help young people to recognise how clubs were in this period an extension of the totalitarian (one-party) system.

Have you visited other exhibitions which looked at football through a cultural or social historical lens? How did you find this? Did it provide new insights? If not, is there a museum which you think could be interested to either integrate football aspects into its permanent exhibition, or programme a special temporary one? Why do you suggest this?

Form 2: When Football Clubs and heritage institutes collaborate on special exhibitions

Heritage institutes like museums and archives can also work directly with football clubs on exhibitions. This form is often connected to a club’s anniversary. At such an occurrence, the needs and ambitions of the clubs and the heritage institutes can enrich one another. Whereas the club might want to celebrate its existence at a more public stage (e.g. at the city archives or local museum), the heritage institute might want to get to know the club better, investigate its relation to the city and/or support its ‘heritage professionalisation’.

In 2021, Willem II Tilburg, one of the oldest football clubs in The Netherlands, celebrated its 125th anniversary with a special exhibition at a central public location in Tilburg (LocHal). The exhibition, titled Willem II: 125 Years Proud in Red-White-Blue (“Willem II: 125 jaar Trots in Rood-Wit-Blauw”) was a key highlight of the club’s anniversary celebrations under the title Leev Hoezee. Fans were an integral part of this exhibition. They contributed personal memorabilia, creating a community-driven feel that honored the deep connection between the club and its supporters. By collaborating with the city and the city’s library, Willem II opened its archive to new users. Moreover, because of this collaboration more Willem II heritage was digitized and archived in formal local archives, preserving football history and making the records more representative and inclusive. Also, the exhibition itself was made digital, and is still hosted by Willem II.

Tottenham Spurs directly supported the London Museum exhibition in 2022 on Harry Kane entitled Harry Kane: I want to play football as part of the community engagement programme. In 20xx, the Jewish Museum in Vienna (Austria) presented an exhibition around the relationship between Football and Jews called Super Jews. Jewish Identity in the Football Stadium. This exhibition was a direct collaboration with the Austian Football league, as well as the First Vienna Football-Club 1894.

Have you visited exhibitions hosted by heritage institutes other than the Football Clubs which were about the football clubs? Was it held due to an anniversary or was there another reason? What do you think is the added-value for both clubs and heritage institutes to do this? If your club is soon arriving at an anniversary, what do you think it should do in terms of cooperation with heritage institutes in town? Why do you suggest this?

Form 3: Other football organisations doing exhibitions

Football clubs are the strongest carriers of community heritage, but other football organisations also present how various traces of the past matter to them (e.g. to keep, to preserve, to present) toward the future. National Football Associations (FA’s) carry a history around the performance of the national representative teams, for example at tournaments. The development of these organisations over time also reflects wider social, cultural, political and economic histories. Football is a complex sector and all its stakeholders (e.g. international confederations, professional leagues, grassroots networks, players’ unions, etc.) carry with them a history of societal relevance. Indeed, many of these have also cherished their past and sought to deliver exhibitions for the public!

While FA’s in the world may have some form of Hall of Fame at their central premises (such as Canada, Italy, Japan, United States), not that many countries can point to a National Football Museum which puts history and society central! The Scottish Football Museum proudly announced itself as the oldest one in Europe. It has in recent times developed exhibitions including complex topics, such as women in football and hooliganism. 

Another very experienced museum is the National Football Museum (Manchester, England), which since 2012 has seen a remarkable development with engaging exhibitions (re)telling the history of the game in England.

Similar to the Scottish and English one, the German Football Museum (Dortmund, Germany) also goes beyond a Hall of Fame, and through its exhibitions (as well as event programme and projects) actively connects the interest which exists in football into opportunities for learning history and reflect upon modern German society.

Beyond Europe, the Museo do Futebol in Sao Paolo (Brazil), recently (re)opened in 2024, showcases the intricate ties between football, culture and identity, and through its exhibition work also stimulates storytelling, for example in a recent virtual exhibition in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture, centering on the fandom around the World Cup of 1970.

An interesting project in development is the coming of a Museum of Two Halves, in which the Wales Heritage Service seeks to bring into one space a Wrexham Museum (for the city’s history and culture) and Football Museum Wales Galleries (as a National Football Museum). The project runs an interesting blog where all the development can be followed.

Football museums can also be found at the headquarters of FIFA, and also various other confederations host spaces which function more as Hall of Fame tributaries. 

Legends. The Home of Football in Madrid (Spain) traverses the space between Hall of Fame and museum in the sense that it seeks to deliver an immersive experience. It also connects the national with the global through its collaboration. What it seems, however, to not address are social and political dimensions of football.

There are however various other football stakeholders with a keen eye to showcase different historical aspects of football through exhibitions.

Football Supporters Europe, for example, ran an online exhibition called Fan.Tastic, which showcased female football fans, both club and national team supporters, from across Europe and did so through its representative networks, giving a direct voice to female supporters.

Also FIFPro, the union of professional players, has put together an online gallery of Pioneers, in which individual life stories presented in an interactive timeline with short videos shed light on the (long) road toward fair working conditions for football players, for example the story of Zahir Belounis having played in Qatar but who was not permitted an exit visa. 

National Olympic Committees may have, in the past, or recently, also set up museums devoted to all sports and not just football. The role of football in those museums is very varied.

Does your country have a National Football Museum? Does the FA in your country have a Hall of Fame but with an eye for social history? If not, how would you imagine one being organised? Which stories should it not forget? Where should it be hosted and why?

Form 4: Football at Memorial Museums

There is a strong connection between Football and Remembrance, as we present in one of our other Key Practices: The Football Club Remembers. In this form we focus on the opportunities which memorial sites have, in their exhibitions, to connect with football directly.

The In Flanders Fields Museum in Belgium, for example, brings in football in relation to the historical events surrounding the so-called Christmas Truce during World War 1. Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen (Belgium), offers a special guided tour on football:

“A guide will take your group through the lives of deported players and other stories. The wartime past of your own club or your favourite football team is covered as much as possible. The guide also pays attention to group dynamics and the margins of action in a stadium. Because everyone can contribute to the fight against racism in Belgian stadiums.”

Have you visited a memorial museum where football was part of the exhibition? What was the narrative? Can you think of opportunities for memorial sites to incorporate football into their exhibitions in the future? Which ones, and why?

Engaged Heritage Work on Football Exhibitions

Exhibitions are all about touching people. Whether it is the chance to see, or even touch, the real object, or to learn new things through the curated exhibition, or to get immersed through interactive opportunities, it is largely a sensorial experience. Playing or watching football is that as well. The examples above illustrate different ways where these two come together. There are also risks involved. 

Heritage institutions creating exhibitions on football without the direct involvement of football communities will not be able to realise their ambition of attracting new audiences. It requires a reciprocal relation with all relevant football stakeholders. A key aspect of this is the need to move beyond the idea of one-time-miracle as well. Perhaps a museum succeeds in getting more people who normally don’t visit their museums thanks to a football-related exhibition, but if a deeper connection is not established the chance of returning visits will fall. Participatory methods, for example inviting the visitors to add their objects or stories to the museum collection can help.

Heritage institutions, in particular memorial museums, who seek to use football as a ‘hook’ for their visitors to get to learn more about a wide (historical) topic, can not simply put football in the exhibition and expect it to work. Guides who can connect the football interest to the historical context need to be involved, for example in the creation and implementation of thematic tours.

There also seems to be an underused potential in the ways in which such exhibitions are communicated to both the ‘targeted’ football supporters and the wider public. With the omnipresence of football media, both at the club/local and national level, sport journalism needs to be involved early on to help build the bridge among the aspiring exhibition audiences.

What makes Football Exhibitions a key practice?

Let’s go back to FC Town, and it’s a special day. After the opening day, the exhibition ran for four months. Thanks to a heart-felt positive review by a popular support group on social media, more and more club supporters found their way to the exhibition. The participatory approach of the exhibition design included peer guided tours, whereby community members were invited by the museum to lead thematic visits to the museum. School history and civics teachers took classes to the exhibition after using the preparatory lesson plans prepared by the museum’s educational staff. The exhibition catalogue was published in the form of a football playbook, and found its way to many kitchen tables in town. And yes, there were also many people simply passing by and not entering the museum. Perhaps these people did however catch a half-sentence of an enthusiastic child exiting the museum with her football-loving grandfather.

FC Town’s Football Exhibition, like all examples mentioned in this article, is more than just another topic to put in a museum format. When clubs and their communities work with heritage institutions on such exhibitions, they:

• expand the cultural space of football fandom toward the larger public;
• can address societal issues and aspirational values connected to football history and culture in a reflective and educational way;
• create novel educational spaces for formal and non-formal education through events and participation;
• stimulate life-long learning and intergenerational exchanges;
• lay a foundation for stronger collaboration between local sport and culture stakeholders;

What are your examples?

Our initial examples are based on a limited series of conversations conducted in the context of the Erasmus+ Project Football Makes History: Schools and football club museums unlocking local heritage education – mainly with partners in the North-West of Europe. We hope to continue to collect more examples! Please use the contact form to share with us your example of socially engaged remembrance work at your football club, and we will work to add it to this very article.

Support available

Did you find the examples inspiring, and are you curious what you could do to organise new meaningful exhibition activities connected to your football club or football in general. Get in touch through the contact form. We look forward to hearing all about your initiative and providing hands-on advice, references and more.

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