The FIFA Museum is an association football museum operated by

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

. The museum is located in Zürich, Switzerland, across town from the FIFA headquarters. It opened on 28 February 2016. The project, costing over SFr500 million ($563m), is currently under investigation for "suspected criminal mismanagement".

Exhibits and amenities

The museum occupies the lower three floors of the renovated Haus zur Enge, a ten-story mixed-use building located in the Enge quarter, across from the Zürich Enge railway station and the FIFA-owned Hotel Ascot. The building also contains a sports bar, a bistro, a café, a library, a museum shop and conference rooms; the upper floors have office spaces and 34 luxury

apartment An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...

s. The museum exhibits over one thousand objects. These include memorabilia from every FIFA World Cup and

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association ( FIFA), the sport's international governing bo ...

, the most famous one being the original FIFA World Cup Trophy. The exhibition features various interactive and multimedia installations such as the biggest pinball machine ever made and an audiovisual media installation called ''Visions of Football'' using

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...

screens. In 2017, the museum was nominated for the German Design Award. Every year, the museum participates in Zürich's Long Night of Museums.

History

Plans for a museum dedicated to the 'history of world football' to be located in Zürich were proposed by then-FIFA president

Sepp Blatter Joseph "Sepp" Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former football administrator who served as the eighth President of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participating in FIFA activities since 2015 as a result of ...

and the FIFA Executive Committee in 2012. In April 2013, FIFA signed a 40-year lease with

Swiss Life The Swiss Life Group is the largest life insurance company of Switzerland and one of Europe’s leading comprehensive life and pensions and financial services providers, with approximately CHF 276.3 bn of assets under management. Founded in 18 ...

for the Haus zur Enge, which would be dismantled and rebuilt to house the museum; an earlier proposal would have had a museum on the grounds of the FIFA headquarters. The City of Zürich Building Authority approved planning permission for the museum in November 2013. Construction on the renovated Haus zur Enge began in 2014 and was completed in December 2015. The museum opened on 28 February 2016, during a ceremony presided by the newly elected president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino. On 22 December 2020, FIFA launched legal action against its former president Sepp Blatter for "suspected criminal mismanagement". Despite costing over SFr500 million ($563m), the museum made only $3m of Fifa's $766m 2019 overall revenues.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Association football museums and halls of fame Sports museums FIFA Football in Switzerland Sports museums in Switzerland Museums in Zürich 2016 establishments in Switzerland Museums established in 2016