Kevin Moore

Kevin Moore is a British museum professional, historian, and author specializing in soccer, sport, and popular culture. He became the founding director of the National Football Museum project in 1997, overseeing its development in Preston and its later public presence in Manchester. His career also includes university teaching, heritage work, and leadership of the Humber Bridge Board.

Moore’s books approach soccer through historical evidence and questions about how the game is understood. What You Think You Know About Football Is Wrong challenges commonly repeated claims about its past and present. Heading for Trouble examines heading, head impacts, and the response of soccer’s institutions. His broader writing on museums considers how everyday culture and popular interests can be represented within collections and public exhibitions.

The National Football Museum opened in Preston in 2001 with the FIFA Collection among its holdings. Moore’s work included exhibitions in Britain and overseas, with projects connected to UEFA, Hong Kong, Germany, and Japan. He later secured the agreement for the Manchester museum, which opened in 2012. These projects placed the history of a widely followed sport within a museum setting, connecting collections with audiences beyond conventional heritage visitors.

Before leading the museum, Moore lectured in museum studies at the University of Leicester between 1992 and 1997. He also helped establish the International Football Institute at the University of Central Lancashire. Between 2017 and 2019 he served as the first chief executive of the Humber Bridge Board, working on the operation and development of the bridge and its potential as a visitor destination.

His professional speaking and media work has addressed the relationship between museums, sport, public history, and popular culture. Presentations have included museum conferences and a football-culture summit in Linzi, China. He has also appeared in broadcast discussions and advised documentaries. That combination of academic research and public presentation forms the background to books written for readers interested in reconsidering familiar assumptions about soccer.

Soccer Books

What You Think You Know About Football Is Wrong: The Global Game's Greatest Myths and Untruths: Moore investigates more than fifty commonly repeated claims about soccer and argues that many fail to withstand historical scrutiny. The topics range from the game’s origins and international spread to supporters, penalties, and institutional decisions. Rather than arranging a conventional chronological history, the book uses disputed assumptions to examine how familiar stories become accepted and why the evidence can suggest a different interpretation. Published in 2019.

The book’s arguments include challenges to familiar accounts of where clubs and traditions began, assumptions about hooliganism, and explanations of soccer’s development outside England. Some chapters address beliefs about performance, including penalties and the significance of shirt colors. Moore treats these as claims to investigate rather than repeating them as settled history, making the structure a series of inquiries into how soccer’s public memory has formed.

Heading for Trouble: Football’s Head Impact Crisis — And How We Save the Game: Moore examines the history of heading in soccer and the consequences associated with repeated head impacts. The book considers experiences in men’s, women’s, and children’s soccer alongside the responses of clubs, governing bodies, and lawmakers. It combines historical investigation with discussion of scientific research and possible changes to the game, asking how players can be better protected. Published in 2026.

Its organization moves from the history of heading to accounts of affected players, then considers the role of institutions including the Football Association, FIFA, and the International Football Association Board. Separate discussion of women and children broadens the inquiry beyond former male professionals. The closing sections examine options for changing practice and policy while retaining a recognizable version of the sport.