The Ghent City Museum is currently hosting a temporary exhibition titled “Offside – Soccer in the City,” which takes you on a journey through the city’s long and colorful soccer history. And it’s not just about looking: with the ErfgoedApp , you ErfgoedApp also ErfgoedApp the interactive tour “Onside.” We put on our kits and headed to Ghent’s newest soccer temple. The prize? The coveted Binnenspel Cup!
"Binnenspel" is a group game, just as soccer is a team sport. Each group can have up to eleven participants. The museum offers two versions: one for children under 12 and one for those 12 and older. The content remains the same, but the difficulty level of the tasks is adjusted.
The ErfgoedApp the appropriate tour are already installed on the tablets provided by the museum. We’re also given a duffel bag containing all sorts of items we’ll need along the way, along with a handy map of the exhibition. With that, we have everything we need to find our way around—and to win.
The exhibition itself takes you back to the roots of Belgian soccer. Did you know that the earliest traces of the sport in Belgium can be found near Ghent? In 1863, an Irish student is said to have brought soccer across the Channel to a schoolyard in Melle. Just twelve years later, in 1875, Belgium’s first official soccer club, “Le Football Club,” was founded in Ghent. That’s more than 150 years of sports history.
In the exhibition’s display cases, we see a vast array of trophies, photos, uniforms, and other objects that together tell the vibrant story of Ghent football. The game regularly challenges us to look around carefully and search for specific exhibits. In this way, the exhibition becomes an active journey of discovery.
One figure who cannot be overlooked in the recent history of Ghent football is, of course, Kevin De Bruyne, who grew up in Drongen and has gone on to become perhaps the greatest Belgian player of all time. His childhood bedroom has been recreated in the museum, complete with medals on the wall and a duvet cover featuring his childhood idol, Michael Owen.
Through the game, we also get to know Sidonie Verschueren, a pioneer in Flemish women’s soccer who was recently honored with a statue in the halls of STAM. It’s a beautiful tribute to someone who was unjustly in danger of being forgotten.
There’s plenty more to experience during the tour: from designing your own pennant (a small flag featuring a club’s logo) and honing your precision in a soccer simulation to playing on a giant foosball table. This variety strikes a nice balance between informative and interactive activities.
One striking and compelling aspect is the focus on the many people off the field who, sometimes even more so than the players themselves, have an impact on the sport and the broader sports culture. For instance, we step into the role of the club president to select a suitable sponsor, hang up the laundry as quickly as possible as the team laundry person, and analyze potential injuries to our players as the team physical therapist.
When you play Binnenspel, you earn points in the ErfgoedApp. You earn these points by answering quiz questions correctly and completing challenges within the time limit. At the end of the game, we write our score next to our team name (“FC FARO”) on a piece of paper and post it on the scoreboard. Do you think you can beat us?
Curious? You can find more information on the STAM website. The tour itself is available on the ErfgoedApp website.
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