BBC News - National Football Museum closes its doors in Preston (original) (raw)

The National Football Museum, Preston

It had been hoped the museum would stay in Preston

The National Football Museum has closed the doors at its Lancashire base for the final time.

The museum is being moved from Preston North End's Deepdale stadium in Sir Tom Finney Way to the Urbis exhibition centre in Manchester city centre.

Controversial plans to transfer the 34,000-item collection, which includes the ball from the 1966 World Cup final, were revealed last October.

The new museum is due to open in the summer of 2011.

Staff at the Preston venue had hoped to keep a "public face" in the city, if funding could be secured.

But their hopes were dashed when Lancashire County Council leader Geoff Driver and Chair of Trustees at the museum Paul Dermody failed to agree on funding.