Meanwhile, Manchester's National Football Museum has just opened a new exhibition, taking place from December 19 to September 15, looking at the role of football during the war.

The Greater Game - Football and The First World War details Christmas truce matches and commemorates the sacrifices made by players during the conflict.

It features also a ball booted "over the top" by Captain Wilfred P Nevill in an attempt to inspire his men onwards on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Ploegsteert - known as Plugstreet by British soldiers - has launched a series of events to mark the Christmas truce centenary, culminating in the sounding of the Last Post in the heart of Ploegsteert Wood and a concert in Ploegsteert Church by the Band of the Royal Marines.

Reconstructed trenches and a nursing post will also give visitors a flavour of First World War battlefield conditions.

European football's governing body, UEFA, inaugurated a centenary memorial next to Prowse Point Commonwealth Cemetery, near Ploegsteert, on December 11.

UEFA President Michel Platini (pictured fifth from left) during the inauguration of a monument to commemorate the World War One soldiers of opposite camps who played a game of football together during a Christmas ceasefire ©Getty Images


Mayor Gilbert Deleu says the memory of the unofficial ceasefire "remains very deep" in the hearts of local people.

The Heritage Committee will coordinate historical research into the Christmas truce which is due to be published in 2015, and there are also plans for annual symposiums, starting in December 2015.

Among the items on show in the free exhibition at the National Football Museum is a previously unseen diary kept by Lt Charles B Brockbank of the 6th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment, in which he mentions a football match taking place on Christmas Day 1914 with a small rubber ball.

The Greater Game looks at how the war is commemorated in football now, and includes photography from current conflicts across the world, highlighting the work of the Mines Advisory Group and photographer Sean Sutton.

The Greater Game looks at how the war is commemorated in football now ©Getty Images




There is also lost film footage from the front and of wartime football.

To accompany the exhibition, the National Football Museum is supporting the online project to compile the comprehensive database of the contribution made by football and footballers during the First World War.

Stories and records of every player who served in the War, as well as records of wartime football from the wider game can be accessed here.

Read the insidethegames.biz Big Read on football and the First World War here.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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