With a museum of Irish Sporting History in the Master Plan for the Sport Ireland Campus it is interesting to note the success of the FIFA Museum in Lausanne which last year welcomed 195,000 guests to its exhibitions and events.
During the FIFA World Cup Qatar, a further 179,000 visitors went to explore a four-week special exhibition as part of the FIFA Fan Festival in Doha.
This represents a record number of visitors and indicates a real desire to explore the history of sport.
With the GAA Museum consistently one of the best-attended tourism venues in Dublin and the International Rugby Experience opening in Limerick, it is an indication that we should utilise them in Tourism Ireland advertising initiatives.
“Over the past year, we are delighted to have taken a significant step forward in our mission, celebrating and safeguarding the history and culture of international football and sharing the magic of the beautiful game with an ever-increasing number of people around the world,” said FIFA Museum Director Marco Fazzone.
“The past 12 months have once again shown that the FIFA Museum is an attractive cultural destination, both in Zurich and all over the world, thanks to our engaging content, unique objects and popular formats, through which we bring fans and legends of the game closer together.”
“We begin our 2023 programme with the opening of our special exhibition ‘Paolo Rossi: un ragazzo d’oro’ in Zurich on 10 February. We are also working intensively on our exhibition plans on the history, development and culture of women’s football, and the FIFA Museum will be present at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™. For the second half of the year, we are preparing an exhibition on design and football. This year we are excited to continue to reach out to football and culture lovers all over the world, as we further expand our international activities.”
At the museum in Zurich, 2022 began with the opening of a new permanent “Trophy Room” exhibition area, in which the trophies from all FIFA tournaments are on display, and the remodelling of the 180-degree cinema, which now allows visitors to move freely between the different floors of the museum.
Two new series –” History Makers” and” Football Meets Cinema” (the latter in collaboration with Zurich Film Festival) – were established as part of an internationally oriented culture programme, in which idols, including Diego Forlán, Gianluca Zambrotta, Lothar Matthäus and Pascal Zuberbühler each personally interacted with hundreds of visitors.
In addition, the launch of the FIFA Museum’s first digital exhibition, called “Origins: Pre-Histories of Football”, represented a further milestone. In total, 5.5 million people from around the world engaged with the FIFA Museum’s digital formats and content in 2022.
