The National Football Museum is re-opening in the summer of this year inside the Urbis building in Manchester. It is set to provide a world-class home for the greatest collection of football memorabilia and interactive exhibits ever assembled with more than 140,000 objects, works of art and photographs make up a very unique collection.
A highlight for us is England women’s coach Hope Powell’s donation of a pair of boots from the 2009 European Championships final with the date and her name on, along with her silver medal from the tournament.
We caught up with her for five minutes on the day she was contributing her items, to find out a little more about her involvement in the museum and how she feels looking ahead to GB’s first appearance at an Olympic Games.
How did you get involved with the National Football Museum?
I was inducted into the Hall of Fame and from there it sort of transpired. Basically you become part of a Hall of Fame and then a part of the museum. It’s a real honour to be involved in that.
How do you think the recognition that you have received from the museum can help the women’s game?
It’s really important. Quite clearly we don’t get enough kudos, enough air time or enough publicity around some of the really great work that female athletes do around the world.
We’ve been to World Cup finals, European Cup finals, done very well I would argue, and don’t really get the recognition that we deserve.
So any opportunity that we are recognised can only boost the women’s game overall.
How important for the women’s game is playing at home in the Olympics this year?
It gives a humongous platform to raise the profile of our game. It is the number one female participation sport and it’s the third largest sport in this country, which I’m not sure people are actually aware of.
We’re third behind men’s football and men’s cricket, so to be the third largest participating sport goes someway into saying that women’s football is definitely on the increase.
I think with the Olympics this year, it just gives us another platform to raise awareness, raise the profile, leave a lasting legacy and try to encourage more young girls and women to get involved in the game.
This way we can hopefully push the game even further forward than it is at the moment.
Do you think it adds any extra pressure to do well?
No it doesn’t actually, no more pressure than usual. We always strive to do the very best that we can, I think the fact that it is in England gives us a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness. Of course we want to do well, but its so much bigger than just doing well, it’s about the sport in its entirety.
But obviously the better we do, the longer we are in the competition and the more exposure that we get so there is a lot to play for.
I think the nice thing is that we are actually in the Olympics, we qualified for 1996 and we weren’t able to go for political reasons, we qualified in 2008 and we weren’t able to go for political reasons.
Now the fact it’s on home soil the opportunity to participate in something that is so huge is a fantastic opportunity for both staff and players.
You were coach in the 2005 Euro when it was played in England, what advice and experience can you bring to the players in terms of being a part of such a huge event at home?
The fact I’ve experienced it before, but a lot of the players, especially the English ones have been a part of major tournaments before.
Obviously we’ve never experienced the Olympics which is a global affair, it’s all the other sports not just about football, it’s very new and very different.
And I’m sure the media interest will be unprecedented but we relish that and we’ll look forward to getting that media attention and focus, to help raise awareness around the sport.
We’ve got so many players and staff who have been a part of major tournaments that we have enough experience to bring to the table to work our way through it, so it is just another tournament, albeit the Olympics, but we are actually used to that.
What does the Olympics mean to you?
Well there are a lot of ‘firsts’. The first time a GB ever takes part in the Olympics, and its home soil. It’s a great opportunity and out of it, we want to leave a long lasting legacy.
How are preparations going?
Yeah OK. It’s quite challenging because the teams are still in the Europeans Championships Qualifiers so that’s running alongside it.
It’s just a case of juggling the two at the moment, and just thinking about selection. It’s going according to plan though, so far so good.
Are you worried at all about the closure of the US Soccer League and certain players not being able to play enough?
I’m not worried about that at all, I’m sure that they’ll all have clubs. Obviously we’ve now gone to the summer season, and so the players are playing at the moment so I have no issue with it.
The girls recognise that they’ve got to be playing and they want to play more importantly so it should have no effect whatsoever.
More info: www.nationalfootballmuseum.com
Lizzie Flint, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
Photo credit: Jonathan Goldberg
