History
With an empty ground and just three players remaining, Houlding decided to form his own football club and on 15 March 1892, Liverpool Football Club was formed. The original name was to be Everton F.C. and Athletic Grounds, Ltd., or Everton Athletic for short, but was changed to Liverpool F.C. when The Football Association refused to recognise the team as Everton. John McKenna was appointed director and signed thirteen Scottish professionals for the new club.
Liverpool won the Lancashire League in their inaugural season and were elected to the Football League Second Division for the 1893–94 season. They ended the season unbeaten as Second Division Champions,[7] and were promoted to the First Division, the highest level of English football.
In 1901, Liverpool won their first Football League championship; a feat that was repeated in 1906. They played their first FA Cup final in 1914, but lost 1-0 to Burnley.[8]
In 1922 and 1923 Liverpool won their first back-to-back League titles, captained by England full-back Ephraim Longworth.[9] This was followed by the longest trophyless spell in the club's history. Post-war Liverpool seemed to have recovered when in 1947 they became Champions once again, but it proved to be a false dawn, and in 1954 Liverpool were relegated. Between 1954 and 1962 the team languished in the Second division and had no success in the FA Cup. Liverpool's record league defeat, 9-1 to Birmingham City, came in December 1954.
Bill Shankly was appointed manager in December 1959. Over the next fifteen years he transformed Liverpool into one of the top club sides in Europe.[10] In his first year, he released twenty-four players and rebuilt the team. In his third season as manager, Liverpool won the Second Division Championship by eight points and were promoted to the top division, where they have remained ever since.
Having started the 1960s in the Second division, Liverpool ended the decade as a major domestic power. In 1964, Liverpool lifted the League Championship for the first time in seventeen years. They were League Champions again in 1966, having won their first ever FA Cup in the previous season, beating Leeds United 2-1 in the final. Liverpool won their eighth league title and defeated Borussia Mönchengladbach to win their first European trophy, the UEFA Cup, in 1973. However, a year later, after another FA Cup victory, Shankly retired. His assistant, Bob Paisley, was offered the chance to manage the team.[11]
Paisley became one of the most successful managers in the history of football. In the nine seasons he managed the club, Liverpool won a total of twenty-one trophies, including three European Cups, a UEFA Cup, six league titles and three consecutive League Cups.
Liverpool's first European Cup was won in 1977. The final was played in Rome, and Liverpool defeated Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-1. The next year Liverpool retained the trophy, beating Club Brugge 1-0 in the European Cup final at Wembley, and in 1979 the club broke another record winning the league title with sixty-eight points and only sixteen goals conceded in forty-two matches.[12] Paisley's third and last European Cup victory came in 1981 with a 1-0 victory in the final over Real Madrid. Only one domestic trophy eluded him - the FA Cup.
The succession of winning managers appointed from within the club's staff is worthy of note. These managers are often referred to as "the boot room boys" after a part of Anfield where the Liverpool staff discussed strategy and allegedly stored gin.[13] Just as Shankly had been succeeded by Paisley, so too Paisley handed the reins to his assistant, veteran coach Joe Fagan. He was aged 63 when he became manager in 1983. In his first season in charge, Liverpool become the first English club to win three major trophies in a single season — the League title, the League Cup and the European Cup.[citation needed] However Fagan's reign ended with tragedy the following season.
In 1985 Liverpool again reached the European Cup final. The match was against Juventus at Heysel Stadium but before kick-off, disaster struck. Liverpool fans breached a fence separating the two groups of supporters and charged the Juventus fans. The resulting weight of people caused a retaining wall to collapse, killing thirty-nine fans, mostly Italians.[4] The match was played regardless and Liverpool lost 1-0 to Juventus. English clubs were consequently banned from participating in European competition for five years with Liverpool receiving a ban for ten years (later reduced to six), and fourteen of their fans received convictions for involuntary manslaughter. The event is known as the Heysel Stadium disaster.
In 1985 Kenny Dalglish, already regarded as one of Liverpool's greatest players, became Liverpool's first player-manager.[citation needed] His reign saw the club win another three League Championships and two FA Cups including a league and cup double in 1985–86. However, Liverpool's successes were overshadowed by the Hillsborough disaster. On 15 April 1989, when Liverpool were playing Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semi-final, hundreds of Liverpool fans were crushed against perimeter fencing.[5] Ninety-four fans died that day and a ninety-fifth fan died in hospital from his injuries four days later. A ninety-sixth fan died nearly four years later never having regained consciousness.
After the Hillsborough tragedy there was a governmental review of stadium safety. Known as the Taylor Report, it paved the way for legislation requiring all-seater stadiums in the top-flight. The report ruled that the main reasons for the disaster were overcrowding due to a failure of police control.[14][15]
1991 saw Graeme Souness installed as manager. However, apart from an FA Cup win in his first season, his reign was not successful. After a shock exit from the FA Cup at the hands of Bristol City at Anfield, "Boot room" veteran Roy Evans took over. While his tenure saw some improvement in league form, in his five seasons the club never finished higher than third. Evans' only trophy win was the 1995 League Cup. Gérard Houllier, the former French national coach, was drafted into the Liverpool management team for the 1998-99 season to work alongside Roy Evans, but the partnership did not work out and Evans resigned in November 1998.[16]
2000–01 was Liverpool's best season for many years as the team completed a unique treble of the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup.[citation needed] They finished second in 2002, a year in which Houllier suffered heart problems during a match with Leeds and had to undergo major heart surgery.[17] Liverpool looked like becoming a force in English Football once again, but Houllier would only win one more trophy in his time in charge, another League Cup in 2003. Against a background of growing disquiet amongst Liverpool supporters, Houllier and Liverpool parted by mutual consent at the end of the 2003–04 season.[citation needed]
Spaniard Rafael Benítez took over and in his first season Liverpool finished a disappointing fifth in the Premier League. The season had a surprising ending, however, as Liverpool won their fifth European Cup final in Istanbul. The Reds met the heavily favoured Italian club A.C. Milan in an astonishing final. Liverpool trailed 3-0 at half time and looked much the poorer side over the first 45 minutes,[citation needed] but they made a dramatic comeback by scoring three goals in a period of only six minutes in the second half, forcing extra time. Liverpool went on to win the penalty shoot-out thanks to goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek.[citation needed]
In 2005–06 Liverpool won the UEFA Super Cup in a 2-1 win over CSKA Moscow, and gathered 82 points in the Premiership, their highest points total since 1988, and won the FA Cup in yet another dramatic final, this time against West Ham in which Liverpool trailed 3-2 until Captain Steven Gerrard fired home a goal from 35-yards out, as the PA system was announcing injury time.
Liverpool's 2006–07 season began with a 2-1 victory over Chelsea to win the Community Shield. On February 6, 2007, the club's lengthy search for investment came to an end when American businessmen George Gillett and Tom Hicks became the owners of Liverpool F.C. in a deal worth £470 million.
Notable players
In the 1960s, as Bill Shankly transformed the club into a European power, among the players who established themselves as key elements of Liverpool's success were Ron Yeats, who Shankly famously described as his "colossus",[20] and Roger Hunt, who scored 245 league goals (still a club record) as well as being part of England's World Cup winning team in 1966.[21]
Paisley's additions to the squad were an important factor in Liverpool's success during the 70s and 80s. Two Scottish signings of 1977 had a particular impact: Alan Hansen, who was a part of 3 European Cup winning teams[22], and Kenny Dalglish, known to fans as 'King Kenny',[23] would excel as a Liverpool player before becoming Liverpool's first Double-winning manager. In 1980 Paisley signed 19 year old Ian Rush, who progressed to become the club's leading goalscorer.[19]
More recently famous players have emerged from Liverpool's youth set up. In the early 1990s Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler emerged to play as winger and striker for the club, while later in the decade Michael Owen, current captain Steven Gerrard and vice-captain Jamie Carragher came through the youth ranks.
Colours and
badge
In 1964, then Liverpool manager Bill Shankly decided to send the team out in all red for the first time against Anderlecht, as Ian St. John recalled in his autobiography:
| “ | He thought the colour scheme would carry psychological impact — red for danger, red for power. He came into the dressing room one day and threw a pair of red shorts to Ronnie Yeats. “Get into those shorts and let’s see how you look,” he said. “Christ, Ronnie, you look awesome, terrifying. You look 7ft tall.” “Why not go the whole hog, boss?” I suggested. “Why not wear red socks? Let’s go out all in red.” Shankly approved and an iconic kit was born.[26] | ” |
Liverpool's away colours are traditionally either white shirts and black shorts or all yellow. However, in 1987 an all grey kit was introduced. The away kit was then grey until the centenary season of 1991–92, when it was replaced by a combination of green shirts and white shorts. After various colour combinations in the 1990s, including gold and navy, bright yellow, black and grey, and ecru, the club have settled down in the 2000s into a pattern that alternates yellow with white each year (with the previous season's away kit usually used as a third change kit).[27] The current away kit is all yellow with red trim, while a third kit of white and green, designed primarily for Champions League away games, is also used for any domestic games where both red and yellow would clash.[28] The current kits are designed by Adidas.[29]
The current Liverpool badge is based around the traditional liver bird, which is placed inside a shield. Above the shield is a representation of Anfield's Shankly Gates bearing the title of club's famous anthem, "You'll Never Walk Alone". The twin flames at either side are symbolic of the Hillsborough memorial — an eternal flame burns outside Anfield in memory of those who died in the disaster.
Stadium
The Anfield stadium was built in 1884 on land adjacent to Stanley Park, and was originally inhabited by Everton F.C..[30] They left the ground in 1892 over a rent dispute. Anfield's owner, John Houlding, decided to form a new club to play at the ground, which became Liverpool FC.
In 1906, the banked stand at one end of the ground was formally renamed the Spion Kop[citation needed], after a hill in Natal that was the site of a battle in the Second Boer War, where over 300 men of the Lancashire Regiment died, many of whom were from Liverpool. Fans that regularly use the Kop are known as Kopites. At its largest, the stand could hold 28,000 spectators, and was one of the largest single tier stands in the world. Local folklore claimed that the fans in the Kop could "suck the ball into the goal" if Liverpool were playing towards that end - and in most games, Liverpool play the second half towards the Kop. The stand was considerably reduced in capacity due to safety measures brought in following the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, and it was completely rebuilt as an all seater stand in 1994, although it is still a single tier. The current capacity is 12,409.[citation needed]
The Anfield Road Stand is positioned at the opposite end to the Kop and houses the away-fans section. It is the newest stand at Anfield having been rebuilt in 1998 with a capacity of 9,074. The two side stands are the Main Stand, capacity 12,227, and the Centenary Stand, capacity 11,762. The Main Stand is the oldest part of Anfield, having remained largely untouched since it's redevelopment in 1973. It houses the players' changing rooms and the director's box, and the dug-outs are in front of the stand.
The Centenary Stand was previously known as the Kemlyn Road Stand until it was rebuilt for the club's centenary in 1992. This redevelopment saw the houses in Kemlyn Road demolished and the address become non-existent.
The current overall capacity of the stadium is 45,362[31] and it is rated as a 4 Star Stadium in the UEFA Stadia List.[32]
On July 30, 2004, Liverpool City Council granted the club planning permission to build a new 61,000 seat stadium just 300 yards away from Anfield at Stanley Park[33] and on September 8, 2006 Liverpool City Council agreed to grant Liverpool F.C. a 999 year lease of land on the proposed site.[34] Following the takeover of the club in February 2007 by George Gillet Jr and Tom Hicks, the new owners announced their financial backing for the plans, indicating that construction work would begin soon.[35] The new stadium is expected to be ready in time for the start of the 2009-10 season.
Club Culture
Liverpool musicians Gerry & The Pacemakers, is the anthem of Liverpool FC and has been sung by the Anfield crowd since the early 1960s.The song has since gained popularity among the fans of other clubs around the world. Claims that "You'll Never Walk Alone" was first sung by fans at other clubs have been dismissed as very unlikely.[37] The song's title adorns the top of the Shankly Gates which were unveiled 26 August 1982 in memory of former manager, Bill Shankly. The "You'll Never Walk Alone" banner portion of the Shankly Gates is also reproduced in the Liverpool FC crest.
Liverpool fans, singing "You'll Never Walk Alone", were featured in the Pink Floyd song, "Fearless". Other popular chants include "Fields of Anfield Road" (to the tune of "The Fields of Athenry"), "Poor Scouser Tommy" (first section to the tune of "Red River Valley; second section to the tune of The Sash"), "Liverbird Upon My Chest" (to the tune of "Ballad of the Green Berets"), "We've Won It Five Times" (to the tune of "Sloop John B"), and "Ring of Fire".
Through The Wind And Rain is the longest running Liverpool fanzine. The name is taken from "You'll Never Walk Alone".
Under Rafael Benítez, today's Liverpool FC has gained a Spanish influence. As well as having a Spanish manager, the assistant manager, Pako Ayesteran, and the goalkeeping coach, Jose Ochotorena, are also Spanish, as is physiotherapist, Víctor Salina. However, there are only five Spaniards in the current squad, although twelve players in total have been brought to Liverpool directly from La Liga.
Liverpool's biggest rivalry is with fellow Merseyside team Everton, against whom they contest the Merseyside derby. This stems from Liverpool's formation after a dispute with Everton officials and the owners of Anfield (the ground Everton were using at the time). Religious differences have been cited as a division, though both teams stem from a Methodist origin, undermining the notion of a Catholic–Protestant split.[38] The Merseyside derby is usually a sell out fixture and tends to be a scrappy affair; it has had more red cards than any other fixture in Premiership history.