ZURICH, Switzerland (Reuters) — New FIFA President Gianni Infantino opened the FIFA World Football Museum to the general public on Sunday (February 28) in Zurich’s Enge district.
It was Infantino’s first official duty after winning the presidential election on Friday (February 26).
The museum, under the guidance of director Stefan Jost, has been two years in the making, renovating and reconstructing a building in Zurich to create three thousand square metres of space for exhibits plus a sports bar, a bistro, cafe-bar and library. There are also event and seminar rooms.
FIFA said that over 1,000 objects, 1,400 photographs, 500 videos and 60 screens make up the exhibits, with a giant soccer pinball machine for visitors to try.
The current World Cup trophies for men and women are also on show, having been taken out of their bank vaults.
Infantino said the museum would celebrate “the passion of the people for football, boys, girls, men, women, I mean everyone who loves football should come and visit this place because it makes you really feel good with yourself if you love football. So I invite everybody to come here.”
He added that soccer was a powerful force to promote diversity around the world.
“We can see that what matters in football is the colour of the shirts of the teams and nothing else,” he said. “Which is excellent and we can really see the history of world football from all continents – from every place. It is really moving and touching and I think very important that finally it has been done.”
