Bobby Moore Statue



Situated in front of Wembley Stadium, the Bobby Moore Statue stands proud as a monument to English football
 


 


 


 

Description of the Bobby Moore Statue

In 2007, the Football Association and Wembley National Stadium LTD commissioned the creation of the Bobby Moore Statue, which now proudly stands outside Wembley Stadium on Wembley Way and overlooks the many football fans and pedestrians who happen to walk around the stadium. Designed by sculptor Philip Jackson in 2005, the 20 foot tall bronze statue pays homage to West Ham United defenseman and Captain of ten years, and Captain of the English National football team from 1966 [1] – the year in which England became World Champions for the first and only time, defeating Germany 4-2 in the FIFA World Cup finals in the very stadium they called home.

On July 30th, 1966, in the Old Wembley Stadium, England made history; 41 years later, the man who helped orchestrate the whole ordeal was immortalized. The old stadium originally opened April 28th, 1923 and served as stage to many historic events including the 1948 Summer Olympics hosted in London, the previously mentioned 1966 World Cup final, and the 1985 Live Aid charity concert hosted by Bob Geldof. The stadium eventually closed in October of 2000 and was demolished between 2002 and 2003 before the construction of the New Wembley Stadium broke ground later in 2003. Built between 2003 and 2007, Wembley reopened March 9, 2007 [2]. A few months later, on May 11th, the Bobby Moore statue was unveiled in front of hundreds of onlookers, including Moore's widow and Prime Minister John Tory [3].

A plaque on the pith of the statue reads: "Immaculate footballer. Imperial defender. Immortal hero of 1966. First Englishman to raise the World Cup aloft. National treasure. Master of Wembley. Lord of the game. Captain extraordinary. Gentleman for all time." The inscription was written by Sports Journalist Jeff Powell, a close personal friend of Moore [4].

This destination is the first stop on the Football Hooliganism Tour

Analysis of the Bobby Moore Statue

Being home to one of the most notable national football teams in the world, Wembley Stadium in itself is an incredibly iconic location. World-famous Brazilian footballer Pele once stated: "Wembley is the church of football. It is the capital of football and it is the heart of football." [5] As such, fans from all over the world, and in this case England specifically, worship the great sport of soccer at Wembley and other stadiums all over the world.

That being said, stadiums and football pitches around London in the late 20th century became home to aggressive and violent fights between fans and supporters from different soccer clubs and thus started the trend of football hooliganism. Although it is mostly a 1970s and onward phenomenon, forms of hooliganism have been tracked throughout British history since the 1870s and 1880s – starting when the more modern version of football emerged. [6] Hooliganism in many cases became a way of life and found itself deeply rooted in people's relationship to the game. Also referred to as "the English Disease" [7], it was commonplace for a variety of English matches to be spoiled by hooliganism, and many traumatic events took place at stadiums all over London. One of the worst disasters in British sporting history occurred during a match between teams Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on April 15, 1989. Known as the Hillsborough Disaster, a severe case of overcrowding of a viewing pen led to hundreds of rowdy spectators flooding a tightly packed area in Hillsborough Stadium, culminating in over 750 injuries and 96 fatalities by human crushing. [8]

In the early 20th century, football fan behaviour was a cause for concern throughout Europe, primarily in Germany, Italy, Belgium and the UK.[9] Hooliganism also became increasingly violent during world cup matchups when countries were pitted against each other in sport. When it came to sports relations during the First and Second World Wars, the national feuds tended to spread onto the pitch. This is exemplified by Britain's withdrawal from the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) in the 1920s. [10] Because of high tensions between the battling countries, Britain was unwilling to play against teams they had been at war with and decided to leave the association, which had been attempting to host international games since the beginning of the 1900s. Though the first official World Cup tournament took place in 1930, England's first entry into the competition was not until 1950 – the first tournament to be played since 1938 after two consecutive cancellations due to World War II. The inscription written by Powell on the Bobby Moore Statue says it best; the rhetoric of "Imperial defender," and "Immortal hero" draws upon the war-like nature of football regardless of whether or not it is inherently connected or not.

Endnotes

[1] Bobby Moore Online

[2] Grafton-Green, Patrick, and Gareth Richmon. "The History of Wembley Stadium."

[3] Collett, Mike. "Bobby Moore Statue Unveiled at Wembley."

[4] Bobby Moore Online

[5] "One Day I'll Play at Bickenhill!"

[6] Dunning, Eric, Patrick Murphy, and John Williams. The Roots of Football Hooliganism: An Historical and Sociological Study

[7] Dunning, Eric. "TOWARDS A SOCIOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING OF FOOTBALL HOOLIGANISM AS A WORLD PHENOMENON."

[8] Wardrope, J et al. "The Hillsborough tragedy"

[9] Frosdick, Steve, and Peter Marsh. Football Hooliganism

[10] Beck, Peter J. "British Football and FIFA, 1928-48: Going to War or Peaceful Coexistence?"

Location of the Bobby Moore Statue

Bibliography

Beck, Peter J. "BRITISH FOOTBALL AND FIFA, 1928-46: GOING TO WAR OR PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE?" FIFA.com. August 19, 1999. Accessed February 23, 2019. https://www.fifa.com/development/news/y=1999/m=8/news=british-society-sports-history-71171.html.

bobbymooreonline.co.uk/statues.html

Dunning, Eric, Patrick Murphy, and John Williams. The Roots of Football Hooliganism: An Historical and Sociological Study. London: Routledge, 2015. Accessed February 24, 2019.

Dunning, Eric. "TOWARDS A SOCIOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING OF FOOTBALL HOOLIGANISM AS A WORLD PHENOMENON." European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 2000.

Frosdick, Steve, and Peter Marsh. Football Hooliganism. Devon: Willan Publishing, 2005. Accessed February 23, 2019.

Grafton-Green, Patrick, and Gareth Richmon. "The History of Wembley Stadium." Evening Standard. April 27, 2018. Accessed February 24, 2019. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/the-history-of-wembley-stadium-in-pictures-a3824566.html.

"One Day I'll Play at Bickenhill!" Wayback Machine Archive. Accessed February 23, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20060330190953/http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/wembley/index.jsp..

Wardrope, J et al. "The Hillsborough tragedy" BMJ (Clinical research ed.) vol. 303,6814 (1991): 1381-5.


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