The National Football Museum and Designation Status
The National Football Museum opened its doors in Preston in 2001 funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. In 2002, its recognition as ‘nationally styled’ was the first step to indicate the national reach and importance of the National Football Museum (NFM) collection. Opening its new galleries in Manchester in 2012 made reality of NFM’s ambition to be the national museum of the national sport. The collection was Designated in 2013, recognising its quality and significance for the heritage of this nation.
The National Football Museum holds the world’s finest public collection of material culture and archives relating to football. The collections number over 40,000 objects items relating to all aspects of the history of football in England and the wider social history of the game.
The collection includes:
art
fans’ memorabilia
toys and games
ceramics
trophies and ephemera
kit and equipment
Film and photography
oral history and archives
In particular, the collection documents the unique significance of sport within English society and the special role that sport, especially football, has had in defining ‘Englishness / Britishness’ to the world.
After acquiring a large women’s collection, NFM shifted its strategy to work towards 50/50 representation of women in football, which has now been widened to further increase representation of under-represented communities in the collection such as global majority and LGBTQ+ communities.
Among the objects that we care for are:
the first FA minute book containing the handwritten laws of the game
the first England international shirt
Victorian women’s football kit
the earliest surviving FA Cup trophy from 1896
the 1966 Men’s World Cup final ball
portrait and maquette of Jack Leslie
the first black player to be selected for England
a ball from England’s opening game in the 2023 Women’s World Cup
and kit and oral history from contemporary WSL players
As a relatively young museum, Designation of the collection was the next logical step to demonstrate that football heritage is a serious subject that has a pivotal place in English popular culture with international resonance. It demonstrates that NFM’s collections have been recognised by the wider sector as being a national treasure and indicates to football bodies such as the Football Association and the Premier League that NFM’s collection have received national recognition and merit their increasing support.
Designation has helped to improve interest and awareness of the collections amongst researchers and the general public, as well as encourage new and unique research into the collection and subject matter. It has also encouraged further donations to the collection and loans from other galleries for temporary exhibitions as well as further loans of material from football bodies such as the FA and Players Foundation. Designation has facilitated joint working with other heritage and community organisations through loans, advocacy and sharing knowledge and has also secured further investment into the future of the collection and museum by gaining recognition, confidence and buy-in from sponsors and grant bodies. Internally it has generated pride and a sense of achievement amongst staff.
Tim Desmond, CEO said: “The National Football Museum exists to house, harness and share stories of football. We aim to inspire and educate our visitors on the impact football has way beyond the game. We’re proud to be custodians of many iconic football items which evoke memories to many people for lots of different reasons. Thanks to Designation, the museum has been able to grow its collection and loans and we’ve been able to raise more awareness of the work we do to help keep football stories alive. We exist because Football Matters.”
