HALL OF FAME GIVE IT A REST

JOHN WRAGG BLASTS THE PREMIER LEAGUE’S LATEST PLAN...

JOHN WRAGG

HERE we go again, the Premier League getting too big for its new and expensive boots.

They are starting a Hall of Fame, if you can be that famous inside 28 largely money-grabbing years.

The awful coronavirus slowed plans down a bit and the first two inductees – thought to be Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry – had their momentous moment postponed.

Suppose it is too late for the Premier League to cancel their monument to self-glory altogether?

There is already a football Hall of Fame in this country. It’s been going a while. Football in this country has been going a while. There is no need for this infantile extra room full of recent memorabilia.

Whatever is placed in the Premier League Hall of Fame, it certainly won’t be antique.

Not like the 1872 shirt- more like a jersey, it’s so woollen and heavy - from the first England international, played against Scotland (a goalless draw in Glasgow in November that year) that’s in the current Hall of Fame together with a cap from that match.

FA Cup winning medals from era after era are in the museum in Manchester.

There’s the Airtex shirt Bobby Moore swapped with Pelé at the 1970 World Cup.

The vast collection of exhibits and memorabilia on display at the current Hall of Fame is world-class.

It’s over the four floors of the Urbis centre and the shirt referee Howard Webb wore for the 2010 World Cup final is there

This Hall of Fame moved at a cost of £8.5m from Preston North End’s Deepdale ground to increase visitors and accommodate more exhibits.

On show are 2,500 items out of 140,000 held in the museum archives.

It costs £10 to get in, a fiver for a child, free if you are from the city of Manchester. Compare that to what you have to pay now to watch Premier League games on the telly on what is often not a Super Sunday.

There is no need for another Hall of Fame.