Football

The Passion for the World Cup

Just a Game? Football began as a game and essentially still is a game. But it’s also a modern epic, with its gods and goddesses, its knights and ladies, and its legendary battles in which the young David can defeat the giant Goliath. Today it is a cultural system with strong links to other systems: entertainment, communication, politics and business.

It`s also an instrument of soft power, a way of projecting one’s values and ideas to the rest of the world, while at the same time mobilising and uniting the masses within one’s own borders.

The exhibition was developed in occasion of the FIFA World Cup in Mexico, Canada and USA 2026 and in close collaboration between Museum Centre Vapriikki, Expona and Contemporanea Progetti. The unique original loans on display are from the collections of the FIFA-Museum in Switzerland, The Museo del Calcio Internazionale in Italy and different Finnish lenders.