Football's Square Mile Day Launched
- FSM Blogger
- May 23
- 4 min read
Updated: May 23
Announcement - Friday 23rd May 2025
On Friday, 23rd May 2025, we celebrate the one-year anniversary of the opening of the World’s Biggest Open-Air Football Museum.
Twelve months ago, we announced alongside our FSM Alliance Partners, the Scottish Football Association, Glasgow City Council, and Glasgow Life, the official opening of Football’s Square Mile and this important next step in our UNESCO World Heritage mission. Through their support, we installed 21 signs and plaques across the City Centre and South Side of Glasgow, marking out Football's Square Mile (FSM) and integrating the physical signs with our FSM website through QR codes.
The announcement kicked off with inspiring lines from the words of our Hampden Collection Gaffer, Julie McNeill:
‘All Tales Deserve To Be Told,
But This One,
Even More So Than Most’
There are no more fitting words than these to tell the story behind our new day of the year - Football’s Square Mile Day, which will be celebrated on the 23rd of May each year.
For FSM Day 2025, we are announcing three major developments in the next phase of our mission.
Football’s Square Mile App - Trailify
We are delighted to announce that our new FSM App is live! David Coutts, FSM Director, says, 'We want to encourage people to take their first step into the history of Scottish football and learn more about Scotland's pivotal role in the development of the beautiful game. What better way to do it than through an app? Our app is simple and straightforward to use, thanks to the design work by Neill Ritchie at Aerial Digital.'
Neill Ritchie from Aerial Digital adds, 'It's been great working with the Football's Square Mile Team. The football walking tour fits perfectly with the aims of the 'Trailify' service to make it more accessible for heritage and grassroots community groups to launch professional app guides, without expensive development costs. FSM also has full admin access, allowing them to update the guide's content, so I’m excited to see what else they will add to help people walk through the story of Scottish football.'
To get started, simply download the 'Trailify' app using our QR code or link to open the Football's Square Mile guide https://links.trailify.me/footballsquaremile.
Football’s Square Mile Membership
Graeme Brown, Director of FSM, shares FSM's inspiring vision: 'One of the key concepts in establishing FSM was finding ways to increase participation and create a sustainable not-for-profit model. Therefore, we are delighted to offer FSM membership, which includes a social membership of Hampden Bowling Club (site of the First Hampden Park), and support it as a venue as the centre of the World's Biggest Open-Air Football Museum.'
Will Moffat, President of Hampden Bowling Club, explains, 'We are a bowling club first and foremost, with an exceptional link to football history. We are grateful to FSM for recognising this and supporting us with volunteers (Graeme and David have joined the Committee), leading our heritage funding applications, organising events at the club to raise funds, and running 10 x 10ks to raise awareness of the club. It's great to have FSM as a partner, they don't just talk, they do, and of course, they are not bad bowlers too.'
Beyond this meaningful support, FSM membership offers incredible benefits, including a membership card, recognition on our 'First Hampden Virtual Wall of Fame', invitations to an annual members' event, a quarterly newsletter, and complimentary postage on FSM merchandise.
All of this is available for just £30 per year!
Explore our FSM Shop here - www.footballssquaremile.com/FSMShop
Football’s Square Mile Merch
We have come up with a fantastic concept for our FSM T-shirts! Each shirt highlights one of our 21 sites, featuring the site number and name embroidered on either sleeve. We want you to walk into a room, and people ask you a very simple question, "What's Football's Square Mile?'
Richard 'Siggy' Young, FSM Director, says, 'You may have seen the FSM team, along with Scottish football legend Rose Reilly, proudly wearing their favourite sites on social media. We are excited to announce that our shop is now open, and the first four T-shirts are available:
Site No. 14 - The Rose Reilly
Site No. 16 - First Hampden
Site No. 17 - Second Hampden
Site No. 19 - Third Hampden
You can order these T-shirts on our website for £30, plus £5 for postage and packing. Remember, if you become an FSM member, you’ll enjoy free postage! Our T-shirts are a high-quality product that looks fantastic! We will add to the number of FSM sites in our range in the coming months.
Explore our FSM Shop here - www.footballssquaremile.com/FSMShop
Our Mission is UNESCO
We are giving everyone the opportunity to join our UNESCO mission to make Football's Square Mile a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and have as much fun as we are having. We are breaking down all the barriers to access our wonderful footballing heritage, and upsetting the proverbial footballing apple cart along the way.
As we keep saying, watch out world, the Scotch Professors are on their comeback tour, and we need your support to take their 'baw' back.
Scotland's Week of Football
Our mission kicked off last year as part of the Scottish Football Association's Week of Football and is helping to support the grass roots of Scottish football. We would like to thank the SFA for their continued support of our mission. #WeekOfFootball.
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