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Watch and (re)play football in Battersea Park

Match Details

Bank Holiday Monday, 31st May 2004
Kick Off 2.30pm on the All Weather Pitches in the south-western corner of Battersea Park
Click here for a map of the park

IMPORTANT
It’s Astroturf, so no studs!

The teams in Battersea Park
The teams in Battersea Park, March 2002

So then, it’s just gone half-time on the way to the next World Cup, and Football’s Leaving Home is undergoing something of a revamp. To celebrate, we’re first going to play a memorial game in Battersea Park, in the same place where we played the inaugural game in 2002. Afterwards, we’re showing the one hour movie in the function room of The Prince Albert.

Continue reading to find out more…

The Film

First off, the film (the trailer is above) that Phil and I made during the last trip is finally ready to be seen – 18 months of spare-time-editing later. I suspect that it still hasn’t reached it’s final form, but we feel confident enough about it to screen it in it’s full one hour glory to you, our select audience, after the game.

We have the function room of the Prince Albert (the same pub we gathered in after the original game – click here for a map) booked from 4.30pm onwards. If you can’t make it to the game, we’d still love to see you at the pub afterwards for the screening.

The Name

Second, we’re changing the name of the project to “The Spirit of Football”. Partly because no-one outside of the UK has heard of the song “Football’s Coming Home”, partly because we realised that it’s easier to explain to people what the web address of this site is when no-one has to remember if there’s an apostrophe in it or not and partly because it seems to sum up the myth/symbol that we are trying to create.

The Game

Thirdly, we just want to play a game of football. We hope as many people as possible who played in the original game will be able to make it, although we’re also looking forward to seeing many new faces too. Rumour has it that a few of the people we met on our travels will be there for the game and the film premiere… watch this space…

Written by on Tuesday, May 4th, 2004

2 comments on this post

  1. Thanks to everyone who came along on Monday – I enjoyed the day very much… despite my nervousness at the time and despite my current aches and pains.

  2. and the result? please!

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The Ball 2018 left England on 25th March 2018 and travelled to the World Cup in Russia.

The Ball 2014 kicked off from England on 9th Jan 2014 and headed to the World Cup in Brazil.

The Ball 2010 left England on 24th Jan 2010 headed to the Opening Ceremony in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The Ball 2006 travelled from London to the Opening Ceremony in Munich, Germany.

The Ball 2002 was carried 7000 miles across Europe and Asia to the World Cup finals in Korea & Japan.