Liverpool Football Club is an English professional football club from Liverpool, England that plays in the Premier League. Liverpool has played at Anfield since the club's foundation in 1892 and was admitted to the Football League a year later.
England's most successful club of the 20th century, and one of the most successful clubs in the history of English football, Liverpool has won a joint-record 18 league titles, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups. Liverpool is the most successful English club in European competition having won five European Cups, the last in 2005, and three UEFA Cups. The club currently rank third in Europe and sixth in the world with the most international titles won.
The club's supporters have been involved in two major tragedies. The first was the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985, where charging Liverpool fans caused a wall to collapse, resulting in the death of 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's home colours have been entirely red since 1964 when manager Bill Shankly changed them from a red shirt and white shorts. The club's anthem is "You'll Never Walk Alone".
History
Liverpool F.C. was founded following a dispute between the Everton F.C. 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 June 1892 after The Football Association refused to recognise the club as Everton. In its debut season, the team won the Lancashire League, before joining the Football League Second Division at the start of the 1893–94 season. After finishing in first place, the club was promoted to First Division, which it won in 1901, and again in 1906. Liverpool won back-to-back 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. After losing 1–0 to Burnley F.C. in the club's first FA Cupfinal in 1914, Liverpool was defeated in the final for a second time in 1950 by Arsenal. The club was relegated to the Second Division in the1953–54 season.
Soon after losing 2–1 to non-league Worcester City FC in the 1958–59 FA Cup, Bill Shankly was appointed manager and released 24 players. He converted a room at Anfield used for boot storage into a room where the coaches could talk strategy; here, Shankly and other "Boot Room" members Joe Fagan, Reuben Bennett, and Bob Paisley began reshaping the team. The club was promoted to the First Division in 1962, which it won for the first time in 17 years in 1964. The following year, the club won its first FA Cup, before winning the First Division again in 1966. Liverpool won the league and UEFA Cup double during the 1972–73 season and the FA Cup again a year later; soon afterwards, Shankly retired and was replaced by his assistant Bob Paisley. Under Paisley, the club won another league and UEFA Cup double 1976, just his second season as manager. The following season the club retained the league title, won the European Cup for the first time, but lost in the FA Cup final. Liverpool retained the European Cup the following season, before regaining the First Division title in 1979. During the nine seasons in which Paisley was 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.
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, who were mostly Italians. The incident became known as the Heysel Stadium Disaster, the match was played regardless, Liverpool lost 1–0 to Juventus. English clubs were consequently 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. 94 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 governmental review of stadium safety. Known as the Taylor Report, it paved the way for legislation which 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 1989–90, the club lost the title on goals scored and in the last minute of the season in a home defeat to eventual winners Arsenal. Dalglish cited the Hillsborough Disaster and its repercussions as the reason for his resignation in 1991. He was replaced by former player Graeme Souness, an FA Cup in 1992 was Souness' only trophy and he was replaced by Roy Evans. Liverpool won the League Cup in 1995 and a 4–3 victory over Newcastle United at Anfield on 3 April 1996, which was named in April 2003 as the Match of the Decade in the Premier League 10 Seasons Awards.
Gérard Houllier was appointed as co-manager in the 1998–99 season, he became the sole manager in November 1998 after Evans resigned.In Houllier's second full season in charge, Liverpool won a treble of the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup. Houllier underwent major heart surgery in the 2001–02 season and Liverpool finished second behind Arsenal. Houllier was replaced by Rafael BenÃtez at the end of the2003–04 season. Despite finishing fifth in Benitez's first season, Liverpool won the UEFA Champions League beating Milan 3–2 in a penalty shootout after the match finished 3–3. The following season Liverpool finished third and won the 2006 FA Cup Final beating West Ham United in a penalty shootout after the match finished 3–3.
American businessmen George Gillett and Tom Hicks became the owners of Liverpool 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 in a repeat of the 2005 final, this time however, they lost 2–1. In the 2008–09 seasonLiverpool achieved 86 points, their highest Premier League points total, and finished as runners up to Manchester United. The following season the club finished seventh and failed to qualify for the Champions League. Benitez subsequently left by mutual consent and was replaced by Fulham manager Roy Hodgson. In 2010, the club were on the verge ofbankruptcy with the club's creditors asking the High Court to allow for the sale of the club.
In October 2010, Boston Red Sox owner John W. Henry of New England Sports Ventures successfully bid and took ownership of Liverpool F.C.
Color and Crest
Liverpool's original home colours (1892–1894)
For much of Liverpool's history, the team's home colours have been all red, though this has not always been the case. When the club was founded their kit bore more of a resemblance to Everton's colours at the time. The blue and white quartered shirts were used until 1894, when the club adopted the city's colour of red.The city's symbol of the liver bird was adopted as the club's crest in 1901, though it was not incorporated into the kit until 1955. Liverpool continued to wear red shirts and white shorts until 1964 when then-Liverpool manager Bill Shankly decided to change to an all red strip.
Shankly wanted his players to be more distinctly dressed, he decided to update the kit, changing the white sorts and socks to red. Liverpool played 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. | ” |
Liverpool's away colours are traditionally either white shirts and black shorts or all yellow. However, in 1987 an all grey kit was introduced, which was used until the1991–92 centenary season, 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 alternated between yellow and white away kits until the 2008–09 season, when the grey kit was re-introduced. The club's third kit is designed for European away matches, though on occasions when the current away kit clashes with a team's home kit in domestic matches, the kit would be worn. The current kits are designed by Adidas, who made the club's kits between 1985 and 1996. The only other branded shirts worn by the club was made by Umbro until 1985 and Reebok for ten seasons starting in 1996.
Liverpool was the first English professional club to have a sponsor's logo on their shirts, after they agreed to a deal with Hitachi in 1979. Since then the club has been sponsored by Crown Paints, Candy, Carlsberg and Standard Chartered Bank. The contract with Carlsberg, which was signed in 1992, was the longest agreement in English top-flight football. The association with Carlsberg was ended at the start of the 2010–11 season with Standard Chartered Bank becoming the club's sponsor. The Liverpool badge is based on the city's liver bird, which is placed inside a shield. Above the shield is a representation of the Shankly Gates with the title of club's famous anthem, "You'll Never Walk Alone". The twin flames at either side are symbolic of the Hillsborough memorial outside Anfield, where an eternal flame burns in memory of those who died in the disaster.
Stadia
In 1906, the banked stand at one end of the ground was formally renamed the Spion Kop after a hill in Natal. The hill was the site of theBattle of Spion Kop in the Second Boer War, where over 300 men of the Lancashire Regiment died, many of whom were from Liverpool. At its peak, the stand could hold 28,000 spectators, and was one of the largest single tier stands in the world. Many stadia in England had stands named after the Spion Kop, but Anfield's was the largest Kop in the country at the time; it was able to hold more supporters than some entire football grounds.
Anfield could hold over 60,000 supporters at its peak, and had a capacity of 55,000 until the 1990s. The Taylor Report and Premier League regulations obliged Liverpool to convert Anfield to an all-seater stadium in time for the 1993–94 season, thus reducing the capacity to 45,276. The findings of the Taylor Report precipitated the redevelopment of the Kemlyn Road Stand. The stand was rebuilt in 1992, coinciding with the centenary of the club and is now known as the Centenary Stand. An extra tier was added to the Anfield Road end in 1998, which increased the capacity of the ground further, though the stand encountered problems upon opening. A series of support poles and stanchions were inserted to give extra stability to the top tier of the stand after movement of the tier was reported at the start of the 1999–2000 season.
Due to the restrictions of expanding the capacity at Anfield, Liverpool announced plans to move a new stadium at Stanley Park in May 2002. Planning permission was granted in July 2004, and in September 2006, Liverpool City Council agreed to grant Liverpool a 999-year lease of the land on the proposed site. Following the takeover of the club in February 2007 by George Gillett and Tom Hicks, the proposed stadium was redesigned. In November 2007, the new design was approved by the Council, and preparation of the site started in June 2008, with HKS, Inc. contracted to build the stadium. Construction of the stadium was halted in May 2008, as Gillett and Hicks had trouble financing the £300 million needed for the development.
New England Sports Ventures, who purchased the club on 15 October 2010, are evaluating the possibility of drastically refurbishing Anfield against building a new stadium.
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