National Football Museum Manchester

National Football Museum, Manchester

History | Exhibits | Access | Attractions in Manchester

The National Football Museum is part of the Urbis development in Cathedral Gardens near the Arndale Center, Chetham’s Library and Manchester Cathedral in central Manchester.

Museum entrance

History

The museum opened in 2012 after its move from Preston. The National Football Museum is spread over four floors on 3 Levels and includes over 140,000 items related to football, its history and global development.

National Football Museum, Urbis, Manchester

Football kits and trophies on display

Exhibits

The National Football Museum includes the Hall of Fame immediately on entrance on the Ground Floor, the FIFA Collection of soccer memorabilia (posters, books, programmes, annuals, photographs, trophies, medals and prints) and the Harry Langton Collection assembled since the 1950’s by journalist Harry Langton.

Also on display are the UEFA Library Collection on the history of UEFA and European Football, the Football Association Collection of trophies, the Priory Collection, the Football League Collection, the Neville Evans Collection, the Littlewoods Pools Collection and the Sir Stanley Matthews Collection and more.

Exhibits and information on the World Cup

Interactive

There are interactive wall panels of statistics of games played in England and overseas, a video room, quizzes and games.

Objects of particular interest include John Motson’s sheepskin coat, George Best’s 1968 European Player of the Year Award and Bobby Moore’s 1970 England shirt from the game against Brazil in Mexico. Also on display is the neck brace worn by Manchester City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann, the painting Going To The Match by LS Lowry, Colin Bell’s crown presented by a fan and the historic FA 1863 Minute Book.

National Football Museum, Manchester, UK

Football art on display at the museum

The museum also hosts temporary exhibitions and includes the National Football Museum Café for refreshments (and WiFi) throughout the day and a museum shop.

Urbis opened in 2002 as part of the redevelopment of the area and was designed by Ian Simpsons Architects.

National Football Museum, Manchester, England

England managers wall panel

Access – Getting There

National Football Museum (www.nationalfootballmuseum.com)
Urbis Building
Cathedral Gardens
Manchester
M4 3BG
Opening hours: Monday – Saturday 10 am-5 pm; Sunday 11 am-5 pm
Tel: 0161 605 8200
Admission: free; charges for the Football Plus+ Experience.

The museum is near the Arndale Center, Manchester Cathedral and close to where the Wheel of Manchester stood in downtown Manchester. Also nearby are the Centre For Contemporary Chinse Art (CFCCA) and Chetham’s Library.

Victoria is the nearest station to the National Football Museum and is on the metrolink. Metroshuttle service number 2 bus stops outside the museum. There is a large multi-storey car park next door to the Arndale Centre with 1450 spaces.

Attractions

Manchester seems a good location for the museum, not just the city’s big two clubs, City and United are based here. There are also many other clubs located close to Manchester. Accrington Stanley, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Bury, Macclesfield, Oldham, Preston, Rochdale, Stockport County and Wigan are all close by.

Read more about Manchester’s many attractions.