Video exclusive: Elland Road’s Leeds United treasures uncovered

There are few football supporters in this country who have experienced the same gamut of emotions as those of Leeds United.

From the heady days of the Don Revie era when the club was crowned league champions and won the League Cup and FA Cup, as well as the old European Fairs Cup, to the dark days of the 1980s and its high-profile fall from grace in the second half of the last decade, Leeds fans have endured more highs and lows than a visitor to Alton Towers.

The history of the club has been nothing if not colourful, and now it is set to go on display in a new museum.

Last week, Leeds Council gave the go-ahead for the club’s plans to house a museum at Elland Road as part of a major redevelopment of the stadium’s East Stand.

Work is already under way on the project and the club hopes that plans for the museum will be finalised in the coming months and that it could be open as early as the first part of next year.

Paul Dews, head of media at Leeds United, is excited by the prospect of having a museum charting the history of the club, formed in 1919.

“This is something people have wanted for a long time. The items in our possession go back as far as the 40s and 50s and we’ve had someone who’s approached us about items that date back to the 20s which effectively tells the story of Leeds United from the beginning.”

The majority of memorabilia likely to go on display will come from the club’s glory days during the 60s and 70s, but Dews believes there will be plenty to interest the different generations of supporters.

“We’re looking to tell the story of the club and it needs to appeal to all age groups, so there will be interactive stuff that suits the kids. We want to celebrate the history, the good and bad, because whether it’s the Don Revie glory days and going through Europe with David O’Leary, or the 80s and the off-field issues over the last 10 years, it’s all part of who we are – it’s the allure of Leeds United,” he says.

A curator is expected to be brought in to oversee the structure of the museum who will liaise with Dews, along with stadium tour host Peter “Stix” Lockwood, and the club’s official photographer Andrew Varley.

“One or two people have already come forward with interesting items, personal items to Don Revie, for instance, that we haven’t got as a football club. We think we’ll get support from former players and collectors who will be willing to put things in there that people haven’t seen.”

Intriguingly, there is an archive room hidden away in the south east corner of the ground where all kinds of miscellaneous items, that couldn’t be put on display elsewhere, have ended up being stored. “It’s full of unseen material that needs to be catalogued, things the club has accrued over the years,” says Dews.

“We’ve got hundreds of items in there, ranging from old trophies through to historical documents, shirts, scarves. We’ve got some old racing silks from when the club had two horses under the Peter Ridsdale regime, and we have the old cine film of the 1972 FA Cup final.

“We actually have something that was presented to the club after it took out the infamous £60m bond which ultimately played a part in us going down.We have the souvenir that was presented to the club at the time to congratulate it on getting the bond. So we really do have all sorts of things.”

As well as the usual footballing memorabilia the museum will also feature some quirky items.“When you play in Europe the tradition is on the eve of the game the two clubs make a presentation of a memento or trophy, and we have these from all over Europe. We played against Maritimo, in Portugal, and there’s a hand-made object, we’re not exactly sure what it is, that was apparently made by the wives of the Maritimo directors.”

It’s all part of Leeds United’s history. “It’s about telling the story, not just to other Leeds fans, but also people who are curious about why we are who we are,” says Dews. “We went over to Old Trafford to look at their museum to see some of the items they have on display and it acted as an inspiration to us in terms of the story we can tell here. Because we believe we have a story that’s even more interesting because of the fact we’ve had the big ups and downs. We’re a unique football club and I do believe we’ve got a unique story to tell.”