Liverpool was founded in 1892 and joined the Football League the following year. The club has played at Anfield since its formation. The most successful period in Liverpool's history was the 1970s and '80s when Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley led the club to eleven league titles and seven European trophies.
The club's supporters have been involved in two major tragedies. The first was the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985 in which charging Liverpool fans caused a wall to collapse, killing 39 Juventus supporters. In the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, 96 Liverpool supporters lost their lives in a crush against perimeter fencing.
Liverpool has long-standing rivalries with neighbours Everton and with Manchester United. The team changed from red shirts and white shorts to an all-red home strip in 1964. The club's anthem is "You'll Never Walk Alone".
Liverpool F.C. was founded following a dispute between the Everton committee and John Houlding, club president and owner of the land at Anfield. After eight years at the stadium, Everton relocated to Goodison Park in 1892 and Houlding founded Liverpool F.C. to play at Anfield. Originally named "Everton F.C. and Athletic Grounds Ltd" (Everton Athletic for short), the club became Liverpool F.C. in March 1892 and gained official recognition three months later, after the Football Association refused to recognise the club as Everton. The team won the Lancashire League in its début season, and joined the Football League Second Division at the start of the 1893–94 season. After finishing in first place the club was promoted to the First Division, which it won in 1901 and again in 1906.
Liverpool reached its
first FA Cup Final in 1914, losing 1–0 to Burnley It won consecutive League
championships in 1922 and 1923, but did not win another trophy until the
1946–47 season, when the club won the First Division for a fifth time.
Liverpool suffered its second Cup Final defeat in 1950, playing against
Arsenal. The club was relegated to the Second Division in the 1953–54 season.
Soon after Liverpool lost 2–1 to non-league Worcester City in the 1958–59 FA
Cup, Bill Shankly was appointed manager. Upon his arrival he released 24
players and converted a boot storage room at Anfield into a room where the
coaches could discuss strategy; here, Shankly and other "Boot Room"
members Joe Fagan, Reuben Bennett, and Bob Paisley began reshaping the team.
The club was promoted
back into the First Division in 1962 and won it in 1964, for the first time in
17 years. In 1965, the club won its first FA Cup. In 1966, the club won the
First Division but lost to Borussia Dortmund in the European Cup Winners' Cup
final. Liverpool won both the League and the UEFA Cup during the 1972–73
season, and the FA Cup again a year later. Shankly retired soon afterwards and
was replaced by his assistant, Bob Paisley. In 1976, Paisley's second season as
manager, the club won another League and UEFA Cup double. The following season,
the club retained the League title and won the European Cup for the first time,
but it lost in the 1977 FA Cup Final. Liverpool retained the European Cup in
1978 and regained the First Division title in 1979. During Paisley's nine
seasons as manager Liverpool won 21 trophies, including three European Cups, a
UEFA Cup, six League titles and three consecutive League Cups; the only
domestic trophy to elude him was the FA Cup.
The Hillsborough
memorial, which is engraved with the names of the 96 people who died in the
Hillsborough disaster.
Paisley retired in 1983 and was replaced by his assistant,
Joe Fagan. Liverpool won the League, League Cup and European Cup in Fagan's
first season, becoming the first English side to win three trophies in a
season. Liverpool reached the European Cup final again in 1985, against
Juventus at the Heysel Stadium. Before kick-off, Liverpool fans breached a
fence which separated the two groups of supporters, and charged the Juventus
fans. The resulting weight of people caused a retaining wall to collapse,
killing 39 fans, mostly Italians. The incident became known as the Heysel
Stadium disaster. The match was played in spite of protests by both managers,
and Liverpool lost 1–0 to Juventus. As a result of the tragedy, English clubs
were banned from participating in European competition for five years;
Liverpool received a ten-year ban, which was later reduced to six years.
Fourteen Liverpool fans received convictions for involuntary manslaughter.
Fagan resigned after
the disaster and Kenny Dalglish was appointed as player-manager. During his
reign, the club won another three League Championships and two FA Cups,
including a League and Cup "Double" in the 1985–86 season.
Liverpool's success was overshadowed by the Hillsborough disaster: in an FA Cup
semi-final against Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989, hundreds of Liverpool
fans were crushed against perimeter fencing. Ninety-four fans died that day;
the 95th victim died in hospital from his injuries four days later and the 96th
died nearly four years later, without regaining consciousness. After the
Hillsborough disaster there was a government review of stadium safety. The
resulting Taylor Report paved the way for legislation that required top-division
teams to have all-seater stadiums. The report ruled that the main reason for
the disaster was overcrowding due to a failure of police control.
Liverpool was
involved in the closest finish to a league season during the 1988–89 season.
Liverpool finished equal with Arsenal on both points and goal difference, but
lost the title on total goals scored when Arsenal scored the final goal in the
last minute of the season.The Kop in 1983, before the Taylor Report recommended that standing areas in football grounds be outlawed following the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.
Dalglish cited the Hillsborough disaster and its repercussions as the reason for his resignation in 1991; he was replaced by former player Graeme Souness. Under his leadership Liverpool won the 1992 FA Cup Final. Souness was replaced by Roy Evans, and Liverpool went on to win the 1995 Football League Cup Final. Gérard Houllier was appointed co-manager in the 1998–99 season and became the sole manager in November 1998 after Evans resigned. In 2001, Houllier's second full season in charge, Liverpool won a "Treble": the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup. Houllier underwent major heart surgery during the 2001–02 season and Liverpool finished second in the League, behind Arsenal.
Houllier was replaced by Rafael Benítez at the end of the 2003–04 season. Despite finishing fifth in Benítez's first season, Liverpool won the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League, beating A.C. Milan 3–2 in a penalty shootout after the match ended with a score of 3–3. The following season, Liverpool finished third in the Premier League and won the 2006 FA Cup Final, beating West Ham United in a penalty shootout after the match finished on 3–3. American businessmen George Gillett and Tom Hicks became the owners of the club during the 2006–07 season, in a deal which valued the club and its outstanding debts at £218.9 million. The club reached the 2007 UEFA Champions League Final against Milan, as it had in 2005, but this time Liverpool lost 2–1. During the 2008–09 season Liverpool achieved 86 points, its highest Premier League points total, and finished as runners up to Manchester United.
In the 2009–10 season, Liverpool finished seventh in the Premier League and failed to qualify for the Champions League. Benítez subsequently left by mutual consent and was replaced by Fulham manager Roy Hodgson. At the start of the 2010–11 season Liverpool was on the verge of bankruptcy and the club's creditors asked the High Court to allow the sale of the club, overruling the wishes of Hicks and Gillett. John W. Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox and of New England Sports Ventures, bid successfully for the club and took ownership in October 2010. Poor results during the start of that season led to Hodgson leaving the club by mutual consent and former manager Kenny Dalglish taking over.[34] After finishing in 8th position in the 2011–12 season, the worst league finish in 18 years, Dalglish was sacked. He was replaced by Brendan Rodgers.
Support
Kopites in The Kop
Stand Liverpool is one of the best supported clubs in the world, with one of the highest average home attendances in Europe. The club states that its worldwide fan base includes more than 200 officially recognised branches of the Association of International Branches (AIB) in at least 30 countries. The club takes advantage of this support through its worldwide summer tours] Liverpool fans often refer to themselves as Kopites, a reference to the fans who once stood, and now sit, on the Kop at Anfield. In 2008 a group of fans decided to form a splinter club, A.F.C. Liverpool, to play matches for fans who had been priced out of watching Premier League football.
The song "You'll Never Walk Alone", originally from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel and later recorded by Liverpool musicians Gerry & The Pacemakers, is the club's anthem and has been sung by the Anfield crowd since the early 1960s. It has since gained popularity among fans of other clubs around the world. The song's title adorns the top of the Shankly Gates, which were unveiled on 2 August 1982 in memory of former manager Bill Shankly. The "You'll Never Walk Alone" portion of the Shankly Gates is also reproduced on the club's crest.
The Shankly Gates, erected in honour of former manager Bill Shankly
The club's supporters have been involved in two stadium
disasters. The first was the 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster, in which 39 Juventus
supporters were killed. They were confined to a corner by Liverpool fans who
had charged in their direction; the weight of the cornered fans caused a wall
to collapse. UEFA laid the blame for the incident solely on the Liverpool
supporters, and banned all English clubs from European competition for five
years. Liverpool was banned for an additional year, preventing it from
participating in the 1990–91 European Cup, even though it won the League in
1990. Twenty-seven fans were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and were
extradited to Belgium in 1987 to face trial. In 1989, after a five-month trial
in Belgium, 14 Liverpool fans were given three-year sentences for involuntary
manslaughter; half of the terms were suspended.The second disaster took place during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield, on 15 April 1989. Ninety-six Liverpool fans died as a consequence of overcrowding at the Leppings Lane end, in what became known as the Hillsborough disaster. In the following days The Sun newspaper published an article entitled "The Truth", in which it claimed that Liverpool fans had robbed and urinated on the dead and had attacked the police. Subsequent investigations proved the allegations false, leading to a boycott of the newspaper by Liverpool fans across the city and elsewhere; many still refuse to buy The Sun more than 20 years later. Many support organisations were set up in the wake of the disaster, such as the Hillsborough Justice Campaign, which represents bereaved families, survivors and supporters in their efforts to secure justice.
Ownership and finances
As the owner of Anfield and founder of Liverpool, John Houlding was the club's first chairman, a position he held from its founding in 1892 until 1904. John McKenna took over as chairman after Houlding's departure. McKenna subsequently became President of the Football League. The chairmanship changed hands many times before John Smith, whose father was a shareholder of the club, took up the role in 1973. He oversaw the most successful period in Liverpool's history before stepping down in 1990. David Moores, whose family had owned the club for more than 50 years, became chairman after Smith's resignation. His uncle John Moores was also a shareholder at Liverpool and was chairman of Everton from 1961 to 1973. Moores owned 51 percent of the club, and in 2004 expressed his willingness to consider a bid for his shares in Liverpool.
John W. Henry of Fenway Sports Group, the parent company of Liverpool
Moores eventually sold the club to American businessmen
George Gillett and Tom Hicks on 6 February 2007. The deal valued the club and
its outstanding debts at £218.9 million. The pair paid £5,000 per share, or
£174.1m for the total shareholding and £44.8m to cover the club's debts.
Disagreements between Gillett and Hicks, and the fans' lack of support for
them, resulted in the pair looking to sell the club. Martin Broughton was appointed
chairman of the club on 16 April 2010 to oversee its sale. In May 2010,
accounts were released showing the club to be £350m in debt with losses of
£55m, causing auditor KPMG to qualify its audit opinion. The club's creditors,
including the Royal Bank of Scotland, took Gillett and Hicks to court to force
them to allow the board to proceed with the sale of the club. A High Court
judge, Mr Justice Floyd, ruled in favour of the creditors and paved the way for
the sale of the club to Fenway Sports Group (formerly New England Sports
Ventures), although Gillett and Hicks still had the option to appeal. Liverpool
was sold to Fenway Sports Group on 15 October 2010 for £300m.
Liverpool has been
described as a global brand; a 2010 report valued the club's trademarks and
associated intellectual property at £141m, an increase of £5m on the previous
year. Liverpool was given a brand rating of AA (Very Strong). In April 2010
business magazine Forbes ranked Liverpool as the sixth most valuable football
team in the world, behind Manchester United, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Barcelona
and Bayern Munich; they valued the club at $822m (£532m), excluding debt.
Accountants Deloitte ranked Liverpool eighth in the Deloitte Football Money
League, which ranks the world's football clubs in terms of revenue. Liverpool's
income in the 2009–10 season was €225.3m.
Liverpool reported a £49.4m annual loss in 2011, although
this figure does not include a new £25m kit deal with Warrior Sports.[
Honours
Liverpool's first trophy was the Lancashire League, which it
won in the club's first season. In 1901, the club won its first League title,
while its first success in the FA Cup was in 1965. In terms of the number of
trophies won, Liverpool's most successful decade was the 1980s, when the club
won six League titles, two FA Cups, four League Cups, five Charity Shields (one
shared) and two European Cups. Liverpool has won the English League
Championship eighteen times, the FA Cup seven times and the League Cup a record
eight times. The club achieved a League and FA Cup "double" in 1986
and won the League and European Cup double both in 1977 and in 1984. Liverpool
also won the League Cup in 1984 to complete a treble, a feat repeated (albeit
with different trophies) in 2001, when the club won the FA Cup, League Cup and
UEFA Cup.Liverpool has one of the best records in the history of top-level football. The club has accumulated more top-flight wins than any other English team. Liverpool also has the second-highest average league finishing position for the period 1900–1999, with an average league placing of 8.7. Liverpool has won the European Cup, Europe's premier club competition, five times, an English record and only surpassed by Real Madrid and A.C. Milan. Liverpool's fifth European Cup win, in 2005, meant that the club was awarded the trophy permanently and was also awarded a multiple-winner badge. Liverpool has won the UEFA Cup, Europe's secondary club competition, three times, a record the club shares with Juventus and Internazionale.
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Honour
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No.
|
Years
|
|
18
|
||
|
4
|
||
|
7
|
||
|
8
|
||
|
15
|
||
|
5
|
||
|
3
|
||
|
3
|
Doubles and Trebles
|
Doubles and Trebles won by Liverpool F.C.
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||
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Double/Treble
|
No.
|
Years
|
|
League and FA Cup
|
1
|
|
|
League and League Cup
|
2
|
|
|
European Double (League and European Cup)
|
1
|
|
|
League and UEFA Cup
|
2
|
|
|
League Cup and European Cup
|
1
|
|
|
League, League Cup and European Cup
|
1
|
|
|
FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup
|
1
|
|
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