The History of Liverpool Football Club

In 1885 it was decided that football clubs would become professional so the Everton players immediately went full time and new signings began to be recruited from Scotland and Ireland. Three years later, the English Football League came into being when eleven other clubs from the North West and the Midlands joined them. One of these was Accrington Stanley whom Everton faced in the Inaugral match at Anfield on 8th September 1888.

Although by now soccer was growing in popularity, Liverpool was still a rugby union city. It was only in 1890 after the Liverpool Dockers had won the right to a five and half day week that soccer became popular, giving the men something to do on a Saturday afternoon. Very quickly the attendance figures rose with Everton attracting fifteen thousand fans to home games. An early club document has been found which shoes gate receipts in 1890 topping £5,000 - alongside an annual wage bill of just over £2000.
The club and the breweries that were owned by John Houlding were doing very but cracks were now beginning to show. Everton, which had started life as St Domingo Football Club had a number of strict Methodists amongst its members. In Victorian England they were also members of an active Temperance Movement that blamed alcohol for most of the city's problems. They did not like John Houlding as he was Chairman of the powerful Liverpool Brewers Association. Some of the Everton members also accused him of using the football club to promote his drinks business. From the earliest days of his presidency, he had ignored suggestions that he needed to build proper administrative offices at Anfield, preferring to run everything from the Sandon Hotel - this also doubled as the player's changing room. It certainly boosted the pub's popularity but it did little for Everton's professional image.
A letter that was published in the Liverpool Echo at the time claimed that John Houlding did not want the players to move out whilst his business was continuing to benefit. The letter concluded "It's a disgrace that at a big club such as Everton, players have to walk through hordes of people on match days."

In 1891 Everton landed their first league championship and the players were carried by the supporters back to the Sandon to celebrate. That same year John Houlding paid the Orrell brothers £5,845 and bought Anfield outright. As the newly installed landlord, he introduced some new rules. One of which concerned the consumption of alcohol. His beer was to be the only alcoholic refreshment available. The second was the rise in rent from £100 to £250.

The objections came in very quickly and John Houlding asked the members of Everton if they should transform the club into a limited company and buy Anfield from him. The response was not what he expected, the members. led by St Domingo church organist George Mahon refused to buy and also offered him a reduced rent of £180 to stay at Anfield for the coming year. John Houlding was offended and could not understand why he was being treated so badly.
The relationship between John Holding and the rest of the club's members worsened and on 12th March 1892 Mahon and his followers called him to a meeting. Unfortunately no agreement could be met and Mahon and his followers along with all but three of the first team squad left for Goodison Park. John Houlding was now left with just a few loyalists and did not have a clue about what to do next. This thankfully did not last for long and after calling them to his home at 73 Anfield Road he asked for their backing to form an entirely new club. The Football League had already rejected his plan to call the club Everton, ruling that it should stay with the existing team. With that in mind a short time later on 15th March 1892 Liverpool Football Club was born.

John Houlding then gave Liverpool a £500 loan to get the ground and club ready for the up and coming season. He recruited William Barclay and John McKenna as directors who helped him through this period of transition. John McKenna very quickly became a tireless worker for the club ending up eventually as its chairman. The club finally took off and its attendances improved. It was in the summer of 1893 that the club was invited to join the football league and Liverpool Football Clubs journey had begun.

There have been many ups and downs, along with changes of ownership but the club persevered and in 1959 under the chairmanship of T V Williams the club signed Bill Shankly. This was to prove to be the greatest signing that the club had every made. Bill Shankly was to become the man who set the out to make the club into what it is today. He immediately set about rebuilding the team, buying in such players as Roger Hunt and Ian Callagher. His success began almost immediately and very soon the club had been promoted to the first division. Anfield was now becoming a fortress and visiting teams were beginning to fear playing there. Bill had instilled into his players a passion that remains to this day. They were part of a family which included the manager, the city and the supporter. They were expected to play their heart out in every game. Liverpool had never won the FA Cup but in 1965 it happened, they beat Leeds United 2-1 after extra time at Wembley. The Shankly empire was moving ever forward and honours were beginning to drop from everywhere.
By the time he retired, Bill Shankly had remodelled two teams, each one bringing their own successes to Anfield.

Chairman also came and went and very soon the club became part of the Moores brother's empire. David Moores became the chairman in 1991 and saw the club through a very sticky period. Our luck on the pitch seemed to be in freefall, the honours had dried up and although a new league had been formed we were no longer the driving force that we once were. It had now got to the stage where it was decided to try a dual management. This would be between Roy Evans - the last of the backroom staff and French coach Gerard Houillier. it did not take long for David Moores to realise that this was not working and Roy Evans was asked to leave, giving Gerard Houiller overall control. Things seemed to improve and we began to win things again. The UEFA cup came home along with the FA and League cup. We had even climbed up the premiership and were second place. Then the slide began and after seeing the club slide to seventh place Gerard Houiller was sacked and Rafa Benitez was bought in.
It was at this point time that David Moores realised that he did not have the funds to run the club in the way he wished. As the team was decimated and rebuilt by Rafa Benitez, David Moores put the club on the market. Unfortunately after speaking to an investment group called DIC, he was duped into selling to Americans Tom Hicks and George Gillett. The club is now going through a very difficult time in its history. After a very promising start under Rafa Benitez which included winning the Champions League the club is struggling due to lack of investment and broken promises.

Our life began under a visionary chairman in the form of John Houlding and we are now in limbo under the joint Chairmanship of Tom Hicks and George Gillett. Hopefully a new investor will soon be found - A Chairman with the same vision as John Houlding - someone who will invest and push the club forward so that it becomes again the force it once was.

I would recommend you all to purchase a book called When Football was Football - Liverpool by Peter Hooton. It is an extremely interesting book and covers the history of the club from day one. A must for every Liverpool Supporter.