National Football Museum
Photo: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3100295 — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The National Football Museum in Manchester showcases football’s history and culture through world-class exhibitions and interactive displays.
Planning your visit
The National Football Museum occupies Urbis, a wedge-shaped glass building in Manchester city centre originally built as a museum of urban life, and it holds the game's national collection — including the FIFA collection, the largest football collection in the world.
The objects carry real weight: the ball from the 1966 World Cup final, the earliest surviving FA Cup trophy, the rulebook that codified the modern game in 1863, and material tracing football from folk origins through professionalisation to the global business it became.
The social history is the strength. Football in Britain is inseparable from industrial working-class life, and the museum covers the crowds, the disasters — Hillsborough, Bradford, Heysel — the women's game and its 1921 ban by the FA, and the game's relationship with race and class.
Interactive skills tests occupy the upper floor.
Allow two hours. The main booking is an admission ticket. Current availability is shown below.
Before you book
Where is National Football Museum?
National Football Museum is in Manchester, United Kingdom. The map on this page marks its exact location.
How long should I allow for National Football Museum?
Allow two hours. That is the time the collection itself takes at an unhurried pace, before any queue.
Do I need to book National Football Museum in advance?
Tickets can be bought on the door at quiet times, but booking ahead fixes the date and avoids the queue at busy ones. Live availability is shown on this page.
