The FIFA Museum

TL;DR. It's not worth the 24 Swiss Francs it cost me.

Bad news: You can't carry even a tiny  backpack with you.
Good news: I got to leave mine here:

The place is quite high tech and lots of glass and large (and I mean large) screens on the walls, so it looks spiffy. But, it turns out to be really small. I had been wondering what one would find in a FIFA museum, and the answer is, "not much." Ah well ... the first floor has, I believe, two displays. The centerpiece is a representation of all the FIFA members, represented by their (men's) team shirts, organized by color. Now, this is visually appealing, but does make it rather tricky  to find any particular country, unless you already know their color, in which case, why do you want to see their shirt? It seemed like form over substance.

Then they had a wall with a brief history of FIFA. I was relieved to see that they included the women's world cups and saddened to see just how recently the  women's U-## tournaments were created.



Next, you go downstairs. It looks large, but the main room is actually tiny -- just bracketed by mirrors. There was a display called "Foundations" that was so uninteresting I don't remember anything about it (six hours later). Then they had a "FIFA World Cup Gallery." Yes, there was a tiny women's world cup portion to it, with some cool things.

This is the display for the 1999 Women's World Cup Winners

This is the display for the 2003 final (Germany)

I found these two displays kind of cool for a couple of reasons. First, the scurry gloves are totally cool. Second, I happen to know where the gloves are that could have gone in the 2003 display. If I didn't hate FIFA so much, I might even have thought to donate them (although the only proof I have of their authenticity is the photograph of Silke Rottenberg and the little boy who got those gloves). You should all be delighted to know that since that little boy is pretty grown up, they are now in the hands (no pun intended) of a young woman who plays goalie for a pretty talented futsal team.

The actual world cup (or one of them) is on display, but it seems that the women's world cup trophy was absent.

I can forgive them for that. However, what I cannot forgive them for is making me sit through a movie about "World Cup Finals" that had precisely 0 minutes dedicated to the women. We got to see all sorts of men diving (as well as some beautiful plays), but really, it's 2019 FIFA -- you've had a women's world cup for over 25 years and you can't put together a few minutes of coverage? This completely infuriated me.











The rest of the museum, only accessible if you sit through the movie, has displays on soccer balls through the ages, turf through the ages, and a collection of digital tournament books: precisely three for the women and something like 8 for the men (there have been eight women's world cups, including the current one, which they had). They also had a gallery of games. The third floor was just a fake -- it got you to their gift shop and cafe.

So, I did manage to spend about an hour and a half at the museum, but I left angry  and disappointed. Get your act together FIFA.