With the 2026 World Cup fast approaching, more eyes will be looking at soccer in the US than ever before. With your support, those eyes will also see the rich visual history of American soccer.
We have started a fundraising campaign to help make that happen,
As part of the Society for American Soccer History’s ongoing efforts to enrich the visual history of soccer in America, 23 clips of early American soccer footage have been published on the SASH YouTube channel since June. Among the clips are the oldest surviving footage of soccer played in the US, the first USMNT international played in the US, the first ever soccer footage filmed with sound, the earliest footage of indoor soccer in the US, and numerous club friendlies against visiting international sides in the 1940s and 1950s such as Liverpool, Manchester United, and Inter Milan. More clips are coming soon.
Some of the footage was kindly donated to SASH from private collections. But much of the footage comes from public and commercial archives. Some of that footage had never been digitized and the cost of digitization was paid for by SASH. In other cases, SASH paid a licensing fee to acquire and share otherwise difficult to find footage.
The cost of the campaign so far is $1400. And we have prioritized for acquisition and release nearly a dozen additional clips of footage currently buried in film archives. Filmed between 1919 and 1950, these clips include footage of the US men’s national team at the 1924 and 1928 Olympics and the 1934 and 1950 World Cups, domestic club championships, and international tours and friendlies.
The only regular source of income SASH receives comes from $20 yearly membership fees. Much of that revenue is used to pay for general operating costs such as annual hosting and technology licensing fees associated with the SASH website, legal fees associated with maintaining the Society’s nonprofit status, and subscription fees for communication platforms like Zoom and Podbean.
That means SASH relies on fundraisers to pursue projects such as the ongoing historical footage release campaign. Past GoFundMe fundraisers have paid for the acquisition of historic footage from 1916 and 1919 of the USMNT and Bethlehem Steel on tour in Sweden, and the Graham Guides Digitization Project , which included some 3,400 pages across 22 editions of the Guides published between 1948 and 1973.
This time our goal is to raise $10,000. If we reach that target, not only will we have the funds necessary to continue the historical footage campaign, we’ll also be able to create a budget for further digitization campaigns and other SASH projects.
You can support the fundraiser by visiting the fundraiser page at GoFundMe and making your tax-deductible donation. You can also support the fundraiser by sharing it on your social media channels. Together we can further the Society’s mission to promote, facilitate, and disseminate research into the rich history of soccer in the United States.
Donation link: https://gofund.me/c59f7b2e