Fifa Museum Collection: 1000 Years of Football

by Spi Group

The fascinating world of the history of football from ancient China and Greece through medieval Europe to the beginning of mass phenomenon football in 19th-century England and to the modern era of the game is presented in more than 400 full-color illustrations on 300 pages, with text in the four official FIFA English, French, Spanish, and German. Nearly 2,000 historically significant and decorative exhibits are depicted, including early graphics, large oil paintings, sculptures and nostalgic memorabilia such as team outfits, balls, insignia, medals, posters, caricatures, toys and games, and other souvenirs. This beautifully reproduced book will appeal to football/soccer fans worldwide.

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Tim Roast]

This is a hardback, coffee table book with lots of colour photos of pieces of football paraphernalia and memorabilia from the FIFA Museum collection spread across 300 pages.

It is introduced by Sepp Blatter in a piece headed: “A thousand years of football history” and has 13 chapters:

1. Ancient History
2. Traditional European football
3. Football revolution
4. The giant awakes
5. The first league
6. The world joins in
7. The modern era (at least up to 1996 when this book was released)
8. Women and football
9. Playing equipment
10. Art and football
11. Decorative items – “from the exceptional to the “kitsch””
12. Toys and games – “looking at all these very decorative items creates wonderful nostalgic emotions”.
13. The funny side.

The chapters all have intro pages followed by pages of the objects, typically one object per page, with captions. All the text is in four languages – English, Spanish, French and German – the four languages of FIFA.

There is the odd little tit-bit of info along the way, e.g. “the Ashbourne games in Derby, in the middle of England, are famous for the phrase “a local Derby match” – a title given for over a century to those matches played between close rivals”, but really this is about the images and pictures. And some items are more pleasing to look at that others, e.g. I love the old team squad photos more than pictures of old shinpads. But overall it’s a good book that football enthusiasts like me should love.

[amoo javad 007]

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