Liverpool to show off beautiful game to mark Culture year
Story by Caroline Innes
AN exhibition of priceless footballing memorabilia is coming to Liverpool to mark Capital of Culture.
Uefa's Only A Game? display tells the personal stories of some of Europe's best-known players and uses football to highlight the 50th anniversary of the European Union.
It features a set of giant table-football figures and an interactive sphere which uses teams competing in the Champions League as locations for a hi-tech geography lesson
Memorabilia on show includes shirts, medals and trophies of great European players such as former Reds captain Phil Neal, and items from the official Everton FC Collection and Liverpool FC's museum.
Uefa chiefs today confirmed Only a Game? will be based in Liverpool's World Museum from October to February 2009, its first visit to the UK.
A spokesman for the organisation said the city was chosen for its inherent passion for football, because it is home to Everton and Liverpool, and to mark Capital of Culture. It has yet to be confirmed who will open the exhibition, which is timed to coincide with the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame dinner at the ECHO Arena on October 8.
But it is rumoured Uefa president Michel Platini will do the honours after attending the dinner, which is also being held in Liverpool for the first time.
Olivier Guilbaud, who designed the exhibition, which is currently on show in Brussels, said: "It is great to be able to take Only A Game? to Liverpool, because it is a city whose passion for football remains second to none in Europe."
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John Millard, executive director of collections management at National Museums Liverpool, said: "Liverpool is the perfect place to host this fantastic Uefa exhibition.
"The exhibition features rare objects from legendary matches, top European trophies and memorabilia from star players, which will draw people from the north west and the UK to explore Europe through football."
Current Reds captain Steven Gerrard said: "There is no city in Europe where football means more than it does to the people of Liverpool.
"I think it is great that we are having a European football exhibition as part of 2008."
ECHO essentials
Highlights of Only A Game? include:
Memorabilia from the National Football Museum, including shirts, medals and trophies of European greats such as Phil Neal, George Best, Ferenc Puskas, Franz Beckenbauer, Bobby Moore, Stanley Matthews and Petr Cech.
A display of Uefa trophies, including the Champions League trophy and Uefa Cup
Giant football figures telling the evocative personal stories of players including Liverpool legend Kevin Keegan, Bernd Trautmann and Johann Cruyff.
Items from the Everton Collection and the Liverpool FC museum.
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Looks like Everton will have plenty of Shirts on display so