As Kansas City welcomes the world for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, football (soccer) fans from every corner of the globe will discover The Beautiful Game, an extraordinary exhibition revealing the profound connections between the world's most beloved sport and the Great War.
It is summer, 1914. Football (soccer) athletes, league officials and fans around the world were planning and preparing for kick-off – but then came the fateful declarations of war. The bugles began calling for volunteers to serve on the battlefield rather than the football pitch.
Yet “the beautiful game” had its role to play during World War I.
Armies helped spread the game even before the war began. Military leaders liked football because it built fitness and teamwork, and kept soldiers’ spirits up. As soldiers went to war, football went with them. Armies used the game for exercise and to boost morale. For soldiers facing danger and boredom, football provided a break from the stress of war and reminded them of normal life.
Back home, football still mattered. Charity matches raised money for hospitals and soldiers’ families. Women's football also grew dramatically as women took factory jobs during the war and formed their own teams.
As a rallying cry, as a morale-raiser and as an escape, chart the rise of football (for players and supporters) in the years before the Great War, then journey through the story of its impact on WWI and explore the poignant influence of “the beautiful game” on people living during wartime.
Explore online
The Beautiful Game
