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The National Football Museum is a museum at the Urbis building in Manchester city centre founded to preserve, conserve and interpret several important collections of association football memorabilia. The museum was originally situated in Deepdale, Preston, Lancashire, but moved to Manchester in 2012. ==History== The idea for what became the National Football Museum goes back to 1994 when Baxi Partnership, a local company, acquired Preston North End Football Club (PNE) and began the redevelopment of Deepdale Stadium. A chance conversation between Bryan Gray, Chairman of PNE, and the Football League, led to a meeting with Harry Langton, them man who over thirty years put together what is now called the FIFA Museum Collection. FIFA recognised the importance of the collection and acquired it from Harry Langton with a view to finding a permanent home. FIFA saw the proposed museum at Preston as an ideal permanent location for the FIFA Museum Collection. Bryan Gray formed a small team of people to work on the project including Keith Cooper of FIFA, David Fleming, Director of Tyne and Wear Museums, Brian Booth, formerly Vice Chancellor of the University of Central Lancashire, and Chris Newbery, director of the Royal Marines Museum in Portsmouth. The Football Association was represented by David Davies. The National Football Museum was incorporated as a private limited company in June 1995 and became a registered charity in November 1995. After much hard work, an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund was successful and a grant of £7.5m was awarded in November 1997. The total project cost was estimated at £12m. A ground breaking ceremony took place on 26 September 1998 by Sepp Blatter of FIFA with the Rt Hon Chris Smith in attendance. The foundation stone was laid by Bryan Gray and Ben Casey (who had persuaded Baxi to buy PNE) in April 2000. Finally the National Football Museum was officially opened on 21 June 2001 by HRH The Duke of Kent. Bryan Gray, the founding chairman of trustees, stood down in September 2001 to be succeeded by Brian Booth. Rob Pratten was the first employee of the Football Museum: he joined the team in May 1995 and for some time was the only employee. Kevin Moore was appointed Director in August 1997 and was later joined by Mark Bushell, Hugh Hornby and Lindsey Jones. The museum's first site was outside Deepdale, Preston, Lancashire. Deepdale was particularly significant as it is the oldest continuously used football league ground in the world.〔 The museum's president is World Cup winner Sir Bobby Charlton. In 2003 the museum and the University of Central Lancashire established the International Football Institute to conduct research into historical, social and cultural aspects of football. On a visit in 2004, Sepp Blatter, President of FIFA commented "''The National Football Museum merits my admiration as a footballer and as the President of FIFA — it is a superb realisation, a real jewel!''". Bobby Charlton commented that he ''“I can’t think of a better museum anywhere in the world.”'' and Sir Alex Ferguson "''Each time I visit the Museum I am so impressed by the great job it does in bringing the rich history of football to life''". The museum received the award of Large Visitor Attraction of the Year, at the 2005 Lancashire and Blackpool Tourism Awards In December 2008, chairman of the Football League, Brian Mawhinney caused controversy when he suggested that the Museum should be moved from Preston to Wembley Stadium in order to attract more visitors.〔 Founder Kevin Moore, stated that it had been an aim to have an exhibition at Wembley, but stated that the trustee's policy was to have its headquarters in Preston. Despite critical acclaim and attracting 100,000 visitors per year, funding was repeatedly an issue. In 2007, it had an income of £791,256 against out-goings of £1,231,195. The trustees were concerned about the museum's long-term future. In 2009, they approached Manchester City Council about moving the museum. The city council offered a funding package worth £2m per year for the museum to move to Manchester. Despite an improved offer of £400,000 per year from Preston and Lancashire councils, the trustees voted to move the museum to the Urbis exhibition centre in Manchester. It was intended that subject to satisfactory funding, the Preston site would remain open as a secondary centre.〔 However, the museum failed to agree a funding package with Lancashire County Council and the Preston site closed to the public at the end of April 2010 However, as of 2012, the Preston site is still used as a research and storage centre.〔 Urbis closed in February 2010 in preparation for an intended opening of the new National Football Museum in summer 2011. The museum reopened in Manchester on 6 July 2012. It is hoped that the new museum will attract 350,000 visitors per year. It was reported in August 2012 that the new National Football Museum attracted over 100,000 visitors in the first six weeks of opening. By the end of April 2013, the museum reached its 350,000 target. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「National Football Museum」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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