6-7 June 2019 Manchester City Football Academy, Manchester, England
LFA were pleased to present to the conference on ‘Origins of the FIFA-Langton Collection’.
Abstract
The number of Football Museums & Galleries open to the public has slowly increased in recent decades with several of National and International scope. Of core value to these are artefacts of historic, artistic and cultural significance. At the heart of the National Museum of Football (NFM) in Britain is the FIFA-Langton Collection, established by sports journalist and Sporting Art aficionado Harry Langton over twenty years from the mid-1970s.
Harry Langton was a journalist reporting World Sport in the 1960s, and notably the 1966 FIFA World Cup Finals. He helped to pioneer the use of colour in newspaper sport. He then moved on to play a role in securing a greater interest in the History of World Football and other games as depicted in items of outstanding interest and Fine Art quality. Seeking both a permanent home and touring exhibitions, he promoted small, then larger sponsored Football Art public exhibitions (1981-1995) in London, Tyne & Wear, Munich, Basel, Rome, New York and Paris, with coverage of Association Football and related games from an International perspective.
The original concept from the mid 1970’s was telling stories surrounding the more significant events, people and places in the evolution of Football and related ball games around the world. Rugby Football components of Langton’s larger (to 1994) collection, The Langton Collection became a part of the Rugby Union Museum, opening in 1996 at Twickenham, London. The larger part, funded by FIFA Zurich then formed the FIFA Museum Collection. Together with additional material procured by him initially for FIFA and then NFM 1996-1999, this collection was displayed at National Football Museum within Preston North End’s redeveloped Deepdale Stadium, Lancashire, England (2001-2010). It is now displayed at NFM Urbis in central Manchester (2012-present,) renamed in 2016 as the FIFA-Langton Collection.
