Liverpool FC history: a club born from a landlord's quarrel
Liverpool FC history starts with a walk-out: the club exists because Everton left. Everton had played at Anfield since 1884, renting the ground from John Houlding, a brewer and local politician who owned the land. A dispute between Houlding and the Everton committee came to a head in 1892, and the committee moved the team across Stanley Park to Goodison Park. Houlding was left with an empty stadium and no tenant, so he formed a new club to fill it. Liverpool Football Club took its name in March 1892 and was officially recognised on 3 June that year.
The first match, on 1 September 1892, ended in a 7–1 win over Rotherham Town. Success arrived quickly by the standards of the age: the club won its first league championship in 1901 under Tom Watson. The rivalry with Everton, the club that left, became one of the oldest derbies in English football, and for more than a century it was played between two grounds on either side of Stanley Park.
Odd, then, that the most famous address in Liverpool's story was built for someone else.
Anfield and the Spion Kop
Liverpool has played at Anfield since 1892, and one end of the ground carries more history than most entire stadiums. After the 1905–06 season the directors rewarded the supporters with a steep new bank of brick and cinder at the Walton Breck Road end. Ernest Edwards of the Liverpool Echo gave it a name taken from the news of a few years earlier: the Spion Kop.
The original Spion Kop is a hill west of Ladysmith in South Africa. On 23–24 January 1900, during the Second Boer War, British troops tried to take it and were forced to withdraw, with heavy losses among men of Lancashire regiments. Other English grounds borrowed the name, but none made it as famous. Supporters who stood there became known as Kopites, and the Kop's noise, humour and swaying crowds turned into part of the club's identity.
The standing Kop lasted until 30 April 1994. Its final match was a 1–0 defeat by Norwich City, a result nobody remembers, because the occasion was the farewell. The terrace was rebuilt as an all-seater stand after the Taylor Report that followed Hillsborough.
"You'll Never Walk Alone"
The song came from Broadway, not Merseyside. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote it for their 1945 musical Carousel. In October 1963 Gerry and the Pacemakers, a Liverpool band, released a version that reached number one in the UK and stayed there for four weeks. Kopites sang along with it, and when the record dropped out of the charts they kept singing it anyway. The phrase was later added to the club's crest as its motto, and the Gerry and the Pacemakers recording is still played before home matches.
The managers: Shankly, Paisley and the Boot Room
In 1959 Liverpool were a Second Division side that had just lost an FA Cup tie to non-league Worcester City. Bill Shankly arrived at Anfield on 14 December that year. The Scot won the Second Division in 1961–62, then the league title in 1963–64 and again in 1965–66. In 1965 he delivered the club's first FA Cup, a 2–1 extra-time win over Leeds United, and in 1973 its first European trophy, the UEFA Cup, along with another league championship. After a 3–0 FA Cup final win over Newcastle United in 1974 he announced his retirement on 12 July.
His successor had been at the club since 1939. Bob Paisley had been a player, captain, self-taught physiotherapist, trainer and Shankly's assistant, and the board had to persuade him to take the job at all. In nine seasons, from 1974 to 1983, he won 20 trophies: six league titles, three European Cups, three League Cups, a UEFA Cup, a UEFA Super Cup and six Charity Shields. The one gap is the FA Cup, which he never won as a manager.
Behind both men sat the Boot Room, a storage space at Anfield that Joe Fagan turned into a meeting room for the coaching staff. Shankly began the habit of daily discussions there, and the habit outlasted him. Fagan himself took over in 1983 and won the League, the League Cup and the European Cup in his first season.
European nights: six European Cups
Europe built the club's reputation abroad. Four of the six wins came in the eight seasons between 1977 and 1984, all under Paisley or Fagan. The first, in Rome against Borussia Mönchengladbach, drew thousands of travelling supporters to Italy. Kenny Dalglish's chip beat Club Brugge at Wembley a year later, Alan Kennedy scored the only goal against Real Madrid in Paris in 1981, and Bruce Grobbelaar's wobbling legs during the 1984 shoot-out against Roma in Rome became one of the competition's best-known images.
| Year | Final opponent | Score | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | Borussia Mönchengladbach | 3–1 | Stadio Olimpico, Rome |
| 1978 | Club Brugge | 1–0 | Wembley, London |
| 1981 | Real Madrid | 1–0 | Parc des Princes, Paris |
| 1984 | AS Roma | 1–1, won 4–2 on penalties | Stadio Olimpico, Rome |
| 2005 | AC Milan | 3–3, won 3–2 on penalties | Atatürk Olympic Stadium, Istanbul |
| 2019 | Tottenham Hotspur | 2–0 | Metropolitano, Madrid |
The club also lost four finals: to Juventus in 1985, to Milan in 2007 and to Real Madrid in 2018 and 2022.
Heysel and Hillsborough
Two disasters in four years shaped the club and English football far beyond any result.
On 29 May 1985, before the European Cup final against Juventus at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Liverpool supporters charged towards Juventus fans in a neutral section of the ground. People fleeing the charge were crushed against a wall that collapsed. Thirty-nine people died, 32 of them Italian, and around 600 were injured. UEFA banned English clubs from European competition; the ban lasted five years for most clubs and six for Liverpool. Fourteen Liverpool supporters were later convicted of manslaughter. Memorials stand in Turin, in Brussels, in Liverpool's St John's Gardens and at Anfield.
On 15 April 1989 Liverpool travelled to Hillsborough in Sheffield for an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest. A fatal crush in the overcrowded central pens of the Leppings Lane end led to the deaths of 97 Liverpool supporters, the deadliest disaster in British sporting history. For decades the families fought false accounts that blamed the fans. In 2016 the fresh inquests concluded that those who died had been unlawfully killed, that police failures were the main cause and that supporters' behaviour did not contribute; the record of the disaster and the inquests sets out the findings in detail. The Taylor Report that followed the disaster ended standing terraces in the top two divisions of English football, which is why the Kop now has seats.
Istanbul 2005 and the honours record
Istanbul is the night Liverpool supporters return to most often, and for good reason. On 25 May 2005, at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium, Rafael Benítez's side trailed AC Milan 3–0 at half-time. Steven Gerrard headed in on 54 minutes, Vladimír Šmicer scored two minutes later and Xabi Alonso followed up his own saved penalty on the hour. Nobody scored in extra time, and Jerzy Dudek saved from Andrea Pirlo and Andriy Shevchenko in the shoot-out. It remains one of the great comebacks in any final.
The league title proved harder to recover. After the 1989–90 championship Liverpool waited three decades for the next one, finally winning the Premier League in 2019–20 under Jürgen Klopp, a year after beating Tottenham in Madrid for a sixth European Cup. Another league title followed in 2024–25.
By the end of the 2024–25 season, the honours record stood at 20 league titles, ten League Cups, eight FA Cups, six European Cups, three UEFA Cups, four UEFA Super Cups and one FIFA Club World Cup, won in 2019. The ten League Cups are a record for the competition, and the 20 league titles equal the English record. A full honours list with season-by-season detail appears in the Liverpool F.C. reference entry.
Questions people ask
When was Liverpool FC founded?
Liverpool FC was founded in 1892 by John Houlding, owner of the Anfield ground, after Everton left for Goodison Park following a dispute with him. The club took its name in March 1892 and was officially recognised on 3 June 1892. Its first match, on 1 September 1892, was a 7–1 win over Rotherham Town.
Why is the stand at Anfield called the Kop?
The stand is named after Spion Kop, a hill in South Africa where British troops suffered heavy losses during a Boer War battle on 23–24 January 1900. A new steep bank at the Walton Breck Road end was given the name in 1906 by Ernest Edwards of the Liverpool Echo. It stayed a standing terrace until 30 April 1994.
How many European Cups have Liverpool won?
Liverpool have won the European Cup six times: in 1977, 1978, 1981, 1984, 2005 and 2019. The finals were against Borussia Mönchengladbach, Club Brugge, Real Madrid, Roma, AC Milan and Tottenham Hotspur. The club also won the UEFA Cup three times, in 1973, 1976 and 2001.
Who were Liverpool's most successful managers?
Bill Shankly, appointed in December 1959, took the club out of the Second Division and won three league titles, two FA Cups and the 1973 UEFA Cup. Bob Paisley, his successor from 1974 to 1983, won 20 trophies in nine seasons, including six league titles and three European Cups.
Why do Liverpool fans sing "You'll Never Walk Alone"?
The song was written by Rodgers and Hammerstein for the 1945 musical Carousel. A version by Liverpool band Gerry and the Pacemakers reached number one in the UK in October 1963, and Kopites adopted it as the club's anthem. The title also appears on the club crest as its motto.
What happened at Hillsborough in 1989?
On 15 April 1989 a crush in the central pens of the Leppings Lane end at Hillsborough, Sheffield, during an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest, led to the deaths of 97 Liverpool supporters. Inquests in 2016 found that those who died were unlawfully killed, that police failures were the main cause and that supporters' behaviour did not contribute.