Governing Bodies
AMAZING! SOUTH AFRICAN AND TURKISH CONVERT ENGLAND’S 1966 WORLD CUP WIN FROM BLACK & WHITE TO FULL COLOUR

For the first time, England’s only World Cup success can now be viewed in full colour.
With the iconic images of red shirts and a golden trophy glinting in the sun it is easy to be fooled into thinking you have seen England’s finest two hours in all its glorious colour when you haven’t.
There is no complete footage of the 1966 World Cup final known to exist other than the black-and-white film broadcast to the nation at the time.
But now England’s World Cup heroics of 1966 are to be immortalised in glorious colour.
The black and white footage of the entire 90 minutes plus extra time will be restored and colourised by the team behind the acclaimed First World War film ‘They Shall Not Grow Old.’
There certainly was a full colour film before, because a talented and eclectic team of filmmakers captured the game against West Germany in glorious technicolour and created a BAFTA award-winning documentary.
Goal! navigates the thrills and spills of the tournament: the pain of Pele, Italy’s demise at the hands of North Korea, the goals of Eusebio and its finale at Wembley Stadium.
It proved a hit in cinemas around the world and was produced by Octavio Senoret, an actor turned producer responsible for the official World Cup film in 1962 when his native Chile hosted the tournament.
He paid FIFA £15,000 for the rights to do it again four years later, inspired by Kon Ichikawa’s acclaimed Tokyo Olympiad, a colour film made for cinema to document the Olympic Games of 1964.
Senoret envisaged a cinematic masterpiece. He recruited as directors Abidin Dino, a Turkish artist and political dissident living in Paris, and Ross Devenish, a South African filmmaker living in London.
‘We wanted to go beyond just a straight account,’ 80-year-old Devenish tells Sportsmail from his home in Cape Town. ‘Beyond just a news report, to something that lasted. Octavio wanted to do for football what Ichikawa had done for the Olympics.
‘He saw the opportunity to do what television companies could not, liberating the world from gloomy black-and-white and see the World Cup for what it was, in Technicolour and in Vistavision, a wide-screen system, not a simple grey smudge of shadows.
‘As our film would be shown in cinemas, long after the event, we could not simply repeat what people had already seen. We had to go in another direction. What we could do was show the detail, taking the viewer within the experience, rather than having a bird’s eye view of the battle.’
New technology enabled Devenish and Dino to get in close and concentrate on the emotions of the players such as Pele and his injury against Portugal.
‘Watching the destruction of a legend, the departure of a warrior was a major moment,’ recalls Devenish. ‘We saw Pele’s slow exit, heightened by the effects.
‘Another good example is Eusebio. He was poetry in motion and we focused on him, helped by the facility we had to shoot the last few games in slow motion.
‘We could observe the mind behind the face. It was a homage to his stature as a player, and those of his calibre. The clarity of 35mm is much greater than 16mm so the material was amazing.
‘The other player who carved his own way into the film was Bobby Charlton with his few strands of hair flying untidily about and was a real star.
‘It’s fair to say Goal! changed the manner in which TV now cover games.’
Using 117 cameras, they shot 46 hours of footage on 35mm film, with high-speed cameras recording at 24 frames per second, amounting to more than 23 miles of film.
‘Apart from being expensive, you needed a lot of space to store the film,’ says Devenish. ‘We had to be conservative about exposing the film stock in earlier games. It was important to shoot only the crucial moments and cameramen had to pre-empt them.’
At Wembley, some cameras were low, others high to cover the action and the goalmouths. One camera was used solely to capture the emotions of the crowd.
‘Extra-time was particularly nail-biting,’ says Devenish. ‘Cameramen had been allocated film on the assumption it would be 90 minutes and, as the game went further into extra time, extra stock had to be rushed out.
‘I could feel the tension of the crew about whether we would run out, and the atmosphere in the stadium was overwhelming. The team I was filming with was behind one goal and we filmed the controversial third goal.
‘It was as if it had been scripted by a master. I am not really a sport fan but I love drama, and I appreciate the tension and excitement involved in a football match. I have never before or since experienced the intensity of feeling that reached me in that arena.
‘It was certainly much more than a game. Feelings were still intense even though the war had ended some 20 years before. My tension was enhanced by the potential disaster we faced if we had no film to cover the end.
‘I felt euphoric when it came to an end. That was how the English supporters felt as well. A national eruption of joy and our high-speed cameras were able to capture the elation.’
Goal! was edited at Samuelson’s studios in Cricklewood. The drama of the final was distilled into 20 minutes at the end of the feature. Distributed by Columbia, it proved a global hit and won a BAFTA award for best documentary.
He never crossed paths again with Senoret, who reportedly killed himself in Los Angeles in 1990.
‘Octavio was handsome and polite, and perhaps a little aloof,’ recalls Devenish. ‘I always felt closer to his friend Abidin, who was an artist: a painter, a writer and a wonderful storyteller.’
Dino died in Paris in 1993 at the age of 80. As for the original colour film of the final, any that did not make the cut was probably destroyed to reclaim the valuable silver nitrate it contained.
‘Apart from the vast warehouses needed to store the film, the accountants would not have liked to see all that silver nitrate go to waste,’ says Devenish. ‘We were the only ones ever filming in colour. The games on television were only seen in black and white and when we see a colour clip today it is probably one of ours.’
Efforts to track down the original failed. The team from Final Replay ’66, the hit watch-along repeat of the final with Sir Geoff Hurst and Glenn Hoddle, screened this year, spent six months scouring the globe for it.
The search led them from the FA, the National Football Museum, the BBC, ITV, Pathe and the British Film Institute to the FIFA vaults in Switzerland, the German FA, and across the Atlantic to New York and Columbia Pictures in Los Angeles.
No-one could explain for the whereabouts of the colour film until they reached South Africa and found Devenish. They have concluded it is lost forever. Devenish’s theory about the recycling operation is probably accurate.
Yet the wonders of modern technology are about to restore and remaster England’s finest two hours. Once again, those heroes of 1966 will be conquering the world in glorious technicolour.
Governing Bodies
FIFA Museum Unveils Groundbreaking Exhibition on Football Innovation

The FIFA Museum in Zurich has launched a new special exhibition titled Innovation in Action: Football Technologies on and off the Pitch, offering visitors an unprecedented glimpse into how innovation is transforming the world’s most popular sport.
Opened on Monday, October 1, 2025, the immersive showcase was developed in collaboration with the FIFA Innovation Team and other departments within world football’s governing body. It explores how cutting-edge technology supports players, referees, and fans—enhancing performance, ensuring fairness, and enriching the overall football experience—while preserving the game’s passion and human spirit.
“What makes this exhibition truly special is that we can give visitors a never-before-seen behind-the-scenes look that allows them to step inside football innovation, experiencing it hands-on rather than just reading about it,” said Marco Fazzone, Managing Director of the FIFA Museum. “We offer a glimpse at technologies and tools that fans don’t normally get to experience up close, while also showing how innovation has evolved over almost 100 years of FIFA World Cup history.”
Organised around five themed sections — Broadcasting & Media, Intelligent Data, Refereeing & Fair Play, Staging the Game, and the Innovation Lab — the exhibition blends rare artefacts with interactive displays. Visitors can relive football’s broadcast evolution, from the black-and-white footage of the 1954 World Cup to today’s ultra-slow motion 4K replays, and even step into a virtual referee booth to experience the pressures of officiating in real time.
Among the standout features is the FIFA Player App, which allows fans to explore Chelsea star Cole Palmer’s performance statistics from the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 Final, illustrating how data helps players refine their craft.
Another exhibit showcases Canada goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan’s water bottle from the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 — marked with opponents’ penalty data — revealing how analytics influence critical moments.
Visitors can also view a referee body camera used at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025, giving a fresh perspective on decision-making from the official’s point of view.
The exhibition invites visitors to engage directly with football technology. They can test their reflexes and judgment as referees, operate goal-line technology systems, or assume the role of a broadcast director managing live match feeds. Data enthusiasts can analyse player movements, while aspiring innovators can design their own football tech concepts inside the Innovation Lab.
Innovation in Action runs until 31 March 2026 at the FIFA Museum in Zurich. Entry is included with a standard museum ticket.
With its rich mix of storytelling, interactivity, and history, the exhibition promises to be a must-see experience for anyone passionate about the future of the beautiful game.
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Governing Bodies
Football cannot solve conflict but carries message of peace, says FIFA’s Infantino

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said on Thursday that football could not solve conflicts, but it must carry a message of peace and unity as Israel’s military operation in Gaza and other global tensions fuel calls for the sport to take a stand.
“At FIFA, we are committed to using the power of football to bring people together in a divided world,” Infantino told a FIFA Council meeting in Zurich where he met Palestinian federation president Jibril Rajoub.
“Our thoughts are with those who are suffering in the many conflicts that exist around the world today, and the most important message that football can convey right now is one of peace and unity.”
Infantino said world football’s governing body could not solve geopolitical crises, but “it can and must promote football around the world by harnessing its unifying, educational, cultural and humanitarian values.”
“I met Palestinian Football Association (PFA) President Jibril Rajoub today at the Home of FIFA in Zurich to discuss the ongoing situation in the Middle East region,” Infantino later wrote on Instagram.
“I commend President Rajoub and the PFA for their resilience at this time and I reiterated to him FIFA’s commitment to using the power of football to bring people together in a divided world.”
FIFA has faced repeated calls to act over the war in Gaza, with Palestinian officials pressing for Israel to be suspended from international football.
The issue has been under review by FIFA for months, but no decision has been taken. Infantino has consistently said such matters require consensus with the confederations and must be handled with caution.
The comments came a day after FIFA Vice President Victor Montagliani noted that any decision over Israel’s participation in European competitions, including World Cup qualifiers, was a matter for UEFA to decide, effectively putting the onus on the European body.
“First and foremost, it (Israel) is a member of UEFA, no different than I have to deal with a member of my region for whatever reason… They have to deal with that,” Montagliani told reporters at the Leaders sports business conference on Wednesday.
Israel are third in Europe’s Group I of the qualifying stage for next year’s World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Amnesty International on Wednesday sent a letter to FIFA and UEFA calling on them to suspend the Israel Football Association.
-Reuters
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Governing Bodies
NFF Clarifies Position on Statutes, Denies Plans for Immediate Amendments

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has dismissed reports suggesting that its Statutes will be amended at this year’s Annual General Assembly (AGA), insisting that no such plans are on the table for the September 27 meeting.
In a statement, the Federation stressed that the ongoing conversation around its Statutes remains at a preliminary stage and that suggestions of imminent changes are unfounded.
Ahead of the AGA, the NFF will host a workshop on September 26, bringing together representatives of its members, as well as officials from FIFA and CAF. According to the Federation, the forum is strictly consultative, designed to deliberate on proposals for new Statutes in line with the principles of good governance and international best practices.
The NFF explained that only after consensus is reached with its members will a separate General Assembly be convened to formally consider and adopt any proposed Statute changes.
“The NFF remains committed to due process, transparency, and working hand-in-hand with its General Assembly Members, FIFA, and CAF,” the statement read.
“The ultimate goal is to establish enduring Statutes that will strengthen governance, broaden representation, and promote inclusivity within Nigerian football.”
The Federation added that the long-term reform framework is aimed at ensuring stability and progress across its structures and enhancing the participation of all stakeholders in the country’s football administration.
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