As 48 nations compete at the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America, it feels like the perfect moment to ask a deeper question: what does football really mean to the places and people it belongs to? Series 1 Episode 9 of If Glasgow’s Walls Could Talk, which was recorded in 2021, does exactly that.
Host, and Director of Glasgow City Heritage Trust, Niall Murphy sits down with Robert Harvey, a former Clyde FC player, who is also a volunteer and area coordinator for Football Memories Scotland, to explore how Glasgow’s stadiums, its history and the collective experience of watching football have shaped the city’s identity across generations.
With the FIFA World Cup now underway, the world is reminded once again of football’s extraordinary power to unite communities, stir emotions, and create memories that last a lifetime. Glasgow knows that feeling better than almost anywhere.
A City Built Around the Game
Football in Scotland stretches back nearly 600 years, enjoyed by monarchs and commoners alike. The oldest surviving football in the world, dating from around 1540, was discovered at Stirling Castle. Scotland also claims the world’s first known football club, founded in Edinburgh in 1824. Glasgow’s own iconic stadiums are not merely venues; they are living monuments woven into the fabric of the city.
Hampden Park, Scotland’s national stadium, was at one point the largest football stadium in the world. In 1937, a Scotland vs England match drew an extraordinary 149,415 fans, a British record that still stands. Both Hampden and Ibrox were designed by the same Glasgow-born architect, Archibald Leitch, whose work shaped British football grounds for four decades.
Football as a Memory Trigger
Beyond the spectacle, this episode explores something more intimate. Football Memories Scotland, which began in 2009 at the Scottish Football Museum, uses thousands of archive photographs from Scotland’s football history to help people living with Alzheimer’s and dementia recall not just players and matches but their own lives, families and communities.
Robert has hosted hundreds of these sessions and speaks movingly about their impact. The project was sparked by a simple but profound observation: that people who struggled to hold onto recent memories could recall, in vivid detail, the names of eight or nine players from a match fifty years ago.
Identity, Belonging and the World Stage
The conversation ranges wide, from the fierce local loyalties of a city divided by club allegiance, to the global power of football to transcend conflict. Robert recalls the remarkable story of Pelé’s club Santos touring Nigeria in the 1960s during a civil war and how warlords called a ceasefire simply to attend the match. The World Cup, in its own way, does something similar every four years.
Robert also speaks enthusiastically about the campaign, #ScotlandFoundedFootball, led by Ged O’Brien, founder of the Scottish Football Museum, and the archaeological dig in Glasgow’s Southside to uncover the site of the very first Hampden Park, opened in 1873 and considered the birthplace of the modern passing game.
Listen Now
If Glasgow’s Walls Could Talk is a podcast by Glasgow City Heritage Trust about the stories and relationships between historic buildings and the people of Glasgow. This episode is a must-listen for anyone who loves football, history, or simply the city itself, especially with the World Cup in full swing! You can listen on our website, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.