It is based in the Urbis building in Manchester city centre, and preserves, conserves and displays important collections of football memorabilia.

A chance conversation between Bryan Gray, Chairman of PNE, and the Football League, led to a meeting with Harry Langton, the man who over thirty years put together what is now called the FIFA Museum Collection.

[citation needed] Bryan Gray formed a small team of people to work on the project including Keith Cooper of FIFA, David Fleming, Director of Tyne and Wear Museums, Brian Booth, formerly Vice Chancellor of the University of Central Lancashire, and Chris Newbery, director of the Royal Marines Museum in Portsmouth.

[citation needed] After much hard work, an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund was successful and a grant of £7.5m was awarded in November 1997.

A ground-breaking ceremony took place on 26 September 1998 by Sepp Blatter of FIFA with the Rt Hon Chris Smith MP, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, in attendance.

The foundation stone was laid by Bryan Gray and Ben Casey (who had persuaded Baxi to buy PNE) in April 2000.

Despite an improved offer of £400,000 per year from Preston and Lancashire councils, the trustees voted to move the museum to the Urbis exhibition centre in Manchester.

[14] However, the museum failed to agree a funding package with Lancashire County Council and the Preston site closed to the public at the end of April 2010.

Started by UK businessman Neville Evans, the collection continues to grow and works to preserve and share the history of football for the next generation of fans.

To mark the 2006 FIFA World Cup the museum worked with partners to develop exhibitions in Hong Kong and Germany.

The museum's temporary exhibitions programme has also included "One for All: All for One", a photographic exhibition highlighting the work of Philip Colvin, documenting the experiences and challenges of disabled Crystal Palace supporter Samuel Burch as he travelled across the country in support of his team); and "The Greater Game: Football and The First World War", exploring the role football played at home and at the front during the war years, and explores the myths and reality of famous stories from the conflict, including a previously unseen diary detailing the events of the famous Christmas Truce of 1914, as well as lost footage from the front and of wartime football.