National Football Museum

Can’t miss the building. Not sold on the outside, but a large, easy angular lift and four floors of space. Ground floor has fixed displays of cup replicas and a video wall of famous names, third floor has interactive games, the rest slow‐changes. The flights of floors reference football stadia terraces—half‐works, but mainly makes for winding stairs. This national museum is an overload of audio‐visual work. For once, creative—if I must watch video snippets, give me twenty so I can choose. Press‐button displays, voices, noise simulations, glowing signs, all here… toys, leather footballs, letters, pottery all here. And the the original rulebook. Only snippets of history, fans, tactics, management. Instead, a mirrorball of the game—women, scandals, shirt technology, writing… Helped by a surprising line in modest humour—the first floor currently opens with, “If you love football, or even if you hate it…” A museum that can reference Billy the Fish is, I say, a work of tactical genius. I’ll go so far as to say, if you don’t like football, there’s probably something for you. If not, there’s a cafe that looks onto the tiny park/playground outside.