Only A Game? hits the heights in Liverpool

The UEFA-driven Only A Game? exhibition is entering 2009 in residence in the World Museum Liverpool – an appropriate event for a city with boundless passion for football – and visiting figures have been so high that the exhibition has now been extended from 1 March to 26 April.

Football's emotions
With admission free, the interactive exhibition invites visitors to plunge into the emotions of football, inspired by a selection of prestigious artefacts, trophies and memorabilia, covering in particular the last 50 years of European football. Only A Game?, which first showed in Brussels in 2007, has a wider appeal than just to football fans, however, as it explores the links between the development of European society and the growth of its most popular sport.

Fantastic event
UEFA first vice-president Şenes Erzik told uefa.com at the exhibition's opening last October: "The exhibition is a fantastic event to convey the message that football is a family, altogether, without discrimination. In today's society, football wants to prove once again that, through the game, you have the right platform to make a united front of human beings. It is a top platform for conveying the social message."

Ground-breaking exhibition
The exhibition's designer, Olivier Guilbaud, worked alongside UEFA's Brussels office head Jonathan Hill to bring Only A Game? to Liverpool as part of the city's 2008 European Capital of Culture celebrations. Thanks to the co-operation of partners – the National Football Museum, the Northwest Regional Development Agency and National Museums Liverpool – visitors from near and far can enjoy a ground-breaking football exhibition for free.

Local flavour
Guilbaud said: "Liverpool is the place to be, and it is so nice to be able to do an exhibition in this city and in this museum which is full of families and children." Visitors will also note a strong local flavour courtesy of contributions from the city's two famous clubs as well as from the National Football Museum in Preston. "We had not so many objects in Brussels, but here it is full of objects because of Preston, because of Everton [FC] and Liverpool [FC]. We are so many people involved in the project now and I'm very happy with it. When you are doing almost the same thing a second time, you know what you can improve and change in terms of quality – I am much happier with this one."

Perfect host
Hill believes Only A Game? has the perfect host. "The exhibition first opened in Brussels [in 2007] and ran for three months," he said. "We wanted to have a moving exhibition, to keep it going, and luckily someone from Liverpool went to see it, and we thought, 'Liverpool, great football history in the city, European Capital of Culture in 2008 – the obvious place'." Only A Game? is supported by ex-French international defender Lilian Thuram.

How Europe has changed football
"We've tried to look at the last 50 years in particular because that is when Europe has become more integrated," explained Hill. "Yes, the National Football Museum lent us objects and we've had contributions from Everton and Liverpool. There's some weird and wonderful stuff. But it is an exhibition about Europe, about how Europe has changed football and about how football has changed Europe.

Social and cultural role
"We want families, tourists, people who don't normally watch football but are curious about football's social and cultural role," Hill added. "We've changed quite a few things from Brussels – it is more interactive. But the spirit is the same as we are trying to explore the links between Europe and football, with a strong design element. Hopefully that will surprise people, because when people think 'football exhibition' they think glass cases with old boots and shirts."

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Practical details
Address: World Museum Liverpool, William Brown Street, Liverpool
Admission: FREE
Open: 10.00-17.00GMT every day
Information: +44 (0)151 478 4393