Cup Winners’ Cup Heading To Manchester
Manchester’s position at the centre of English football in 2012, with United and City in a two-horse race for the Premier League title, will be underlined when the National Football Museum opens to the public in July.
This week the museum began a 100-day countdown to its opening, and unveiled one of its star exhibits – the now-defunct UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.
The competition, played between the cup winners from Europe’s leading nations, ran for more than 30 years before being discontinued and absorbed into the UEFA Cup – now the Europa League – in 1999. A number of British clubs won the competition over its lifespan, including Manchester United, who beat Barcelona in the final in 2001.
The new National Football Museum has been designed to provide a world-class home for the greatest collection of football memorabilia ever assembled and is set to become one of the biggest visitor attractions in the UK.
The museum will be arranged over three floors, with the atrium space dedicated to the museum’s Hall of Fame. It will become the new home for the Cup Winner’s Cup, and will feature prized exhibits from the museum’s collection of more than 140,000 objects, works of art and photographs as well as interactive exhibits.
Exhibit highlights include a shirt from the world’s first international match played in 1872, the 1966 World Cup Final ball and the shirt worn by Maradona during the infamous 1986 ‘Hand of God’ quarter-final match between England and Argentina.
Councillor Mike Amesbury, Executive Member for Culture and Leisure for Manchester City Council, said: ‘Manchester is already the most visited English city outside London. The National Football Museum will add to our existing range of visitor attractions and further strengthen the city as a destination of choice.
‘Mention Manchester to anyone around the world and one of the first things they will think of is football, so it’s the perfect location for a must-see shrine to the global game. Whichever team you support, and even if you only have a passing interest in football, the museum is sure to be a winning attraction.’
