Liverpool F.C.

History

Liverpool were 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 across Stanley Park to their new stadium of 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.

Liverpool played their first match on 1 September 1892: a pre-season friendly match against Rotherham Town which they won 7–1. The team Liverpool fielded against Rotherham was composed entirely of Scottish players; the players who came from Scotland to play in England in those days were known as the Scotch Professors. Manager John McKenna had recruited the players after a scouting trip to Scotland—so they became known as the "team of Macs". The team won the Lancashire League in its debut season and joined the Football League Second Division at the start of the 1893–94 season. After the club was promoted to the First Division in 1896, Tom Watson was appointed manager. He led Liverpool to its first league title in 1901, and won the league again in 1906.

Liverpool reached their first FA Cup final in 1914, losing 1–0 to Burnley. It won consecutive league championships in 1922 and 1923, a team which featured goalkeeper Elisha Scott, the club's longest-serving player, but did not win another trophy until the 1946–47 season, when the club won the First Division for a fifth time under the control of George Kay. Liverpool suffered its second Cup Final defeat in 1950, playing against Arsenal. In 1952, Anfield recorded its biggest attendance ever when 61,905 spectators watched Liverpool beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 2–1 in an FA Cup match. After 49 uninterrupted years in the top division of English football 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. The following year, 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 20 trophies, including three European Cups, a UEFA Cup, six League titles and three consecutive League Cups; the only domestic trophy he did not win was the FA Cup.

Colours and badge

For much of Liverpool's history, its home colours have been all red. When the club was founded in 1892, blue and white quartered shirts were used until the club adopted the city's colour of red in 1896. The city's symbol of the liver bird is the club's badge (or crest, as it is sometimes known) having first appeared in a flag over Anfield in September 1892 two weeks after the club's first competitive match, and from the turn of the century it appeared on official club correspondence, the club's 1922 championship banner, club programmes, the players track-suit tops from the 1930s before it first appeared on the club's white away shirts at the 1950 FA Cup final, and was then incorporated in the red home shirt in 1955. Liverpool continued to wear red shirts and white shorts until 1964 when manager Bill Shankly decided to change to an all-red strip. Liverpool played in all red for the first time against Anderlecht, as Ian St John recalled in his autobiography:

He [Shankly] 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 7 ft 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.

The Liverpool away strip has more often than not been all yellow or white shirts and black shorts, but there have been several exceptions. An all grey kit was introduced in 1987, which was used until the 1991–92 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 it re-introduced the grey kit. A third kit is designed for European away matches, though it is also worn in domestic away matches on occasions when the current away kit clashes with a team's home kit. Between 2012 and 2015, the kits were designed by Warrior Sports, who became the club's kit providers at the start of the 2012–13 season. In February 2015, Warrior's parent company New Balance announced it would be entering the global football market, with teams sponsored by Warrior now being outfitted by New Balance. The only other branded shirts worn by the club were made by Umbro until 1985, when they were replaced by Adidas, who produced the kits until 1996 when Reebok took over. They produced the kits for 10 years before Adidas made the kits from 2006 to 2012. Nike became the club's official kit supplier at the start of the 2020–21 season. In 2025, the club reunited with Adidas in a new 10-year partnership.

Stadium

Liverpool's home stadium is Anfield, which was built in 1884 on land adjacent to Stanley Park. Situated 2 miles (3.2 km) from Liverpool city centre, it was originally used by Everton before the latter moved to Goodison Park after a dispute over rent with Anfield owner John Houlding. Left with an empty ground, Houlding founded Liverpool in 1892 and the club has played at Anfield ever since. The capacity of the stadium at the time was 20,000, although only 100 spectators attended Liverpool's first match at Anfield.

The Kop is the stadium section where Liverpool's most vocal supporters, often referred to as "Kopites", have traditionally gathered. Historically, the Kop was a terraced stand before it was converted to seating, and it has long been recognized as the heart of Anfield's fan base. The Kop has been called "one of the most famous ends of a stadium in world football" by BBC Sport, and Liverpool traditionally attack towards it in the second half of games. It was originally built in 1906 due to the high turnout for matches and was called the Oakfield Road Embankment. Its first game was on 1 September 1906 when the home side beat Stoke City 1–0. In 1906, the banked stand at one end of the ground was formally renamed the Spion Kop after a hill in KwaZulu-Natal. The hill was the site of the Battle of Spion Kop in the Second Boer War, where over 300 men of the Lancashire Regiment died, many of them 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 stadiums in England had stands named after Spion Kop, but Anfield's was the largest of them at the time; it could hold more supporters than some entire football grounds.

Anfield could accommodate more than 60,000 supporters at its peak and had a capacity of 55,000 until the 1990s, when, following recommendations from the Taylor Report, all clubs in the Premier League were obliged to convert to all-seater stadiums in time for the 1993–94 season, reducing its capacity to 45,276. The findings of the report precipitated the redevelopment of the Kemlyn Road Stand, which was rebuilt in 1992, coinciding with the centenary of the club, and was known as the Centenary Stand until 2017 when it was renamed the Sir Kenny Dalglish Stand. An extra tier was added to the Anfield Road end in 1998, which further increased the capacity of the ground but gave rise to problems when it was opened. 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.

Support

Liverpool is one of the best supported clubs in the world. The club states that its worldwide fan base includes 300 officially recognised Supporters Clubs in 100 countries. Notable groups include Spirit of Shankly. The club takes advantage of this support through its worldwide summer tours, which has included playing in front of 95,000 in Melbourne, Australia, and 67,000 in Yokohama, Japan. The club also has a significant following on social media, and in 2024, it became the first Premier League club (and the third sports team in the world, after Barcelona and Real Madrid) to amass 10 million subscribers on YouTube. In 2026, Liverpool generated 14.7 billion social video views over the previous year, the Premier League's most-engaged club for the third consecutive season, and had the league's most-visited club website. In 2025, the club received orders from more than 150 countries for the team's replica shirts. In 2024, the club ranked joint-first (with Manchester United) for kit sales among Premier league clubs. 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 formed 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 and the Pacemakers, is the club's anthem and has been sung by the Anfield crowd since the early 1960s. Simon Hart of The Independent wrote: "The pre-match, scarfs-raised, sing-it-loud ritual is as much a part of Liverpool's fabric as their red shirts." 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 badge.

The club's supporters have been involved in two stadium disasters. The first was the 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster, in which 39 people, mostly Italians and 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, despite winning 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.

Rivalries

Liverpool's longest-established rivalry is with fellow Liverpool team Everton, against whom they contest the Merseyside derby. The rivalry stems from Liverpool's formation and the dispute with Everton officials and the then owners of Anfield. The Merseyside derby is one of the few local derbies which do not enforce fan segregation, and hence has been known as the "friendly derby". Since the mid-1980s, the rivalry has intensified both on and off the field and, since the inception of the Premier League in 1992, the Merseyside derby has had more players sent off than any other Premier League game. It has been referred to as "the most ill-disciplined and explosive fixture in the Premier League". In terms of support within the city, the number of Liverpool fans outweighs Everton supporters by a ratio of 2:1.

Liverpool's rivalry with Manchester United stems from the cities' competition in the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century. Connected by the world's first inter-city railway, by road Liverpool and Manchester are separated by approximately 30 miles (48 km) along the East Lancs Road. Ranked the two biggest clubs in England by France Football magazine, Liverpool and Manchester United are the most successful English teams in both domestic and international competitions, and both clubs have a global fanbase. Viewed as one of the biggest rivalries in world football, it is considered the most famous fixture in English football. Both clubs tour internationally during pre-season, and in 2018 they faced each other in front of 101,000 in Michigan in the U.S. The two clubs alternated as champions between 1964 and 1967, and Manchester United became the first English team to win the European Cup in 1968, followed by Liverpool's four European Cup victories. Despite the 40 league titles and nine European Cups between them, the two rivals have rarely been successful at the same time – Liverpool's run of titles in the 1970s and 1980s coincided with Manchester United's 26-year title drought while United's success in the Premier League era coincided with Liverpool's 30-year title drought, with the two clubs having finished first and second in the league only five times. Such is the rivalry between the clubs that they rarely do transfer business with each other. The last player to be transferred between the two clubs was Phil Chisnall, who moved to Liverpool from Manchester United in 1964.

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. His successor was Noel White who became chairman in 1990. In August 1991 David Moores, whose family had owned the club for more than 50 years, became chairman. 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.

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 £174.1 million for the total shareholding and £44.8 million 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 holding company of the club to be £350 million in debt (due to leveraged takeover) with losses of £55m, causing auditor KPMG to qualify its audit opinion. The group'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, the major asset of the holding company. A High Court judge, Mr Justice Floyd, ruled in favour of the creditors and paved the way for the sale of the club to John W. Henry's 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 £300 million.

Liverpool has been described as a global brand; a 2010 report valued the club's trademarks and associated intellectual property at £141 million, an increase of £5 million on the previous year. The club was given a brand rating of AA (Very Strong). In May 2024, business magazine Forbes ranked Liverpool as the fourth-most valuable football club in the world, behind Real Madrid, Manchester United, and Barcelona; they valued the club at $5.37 billion. According to a 2018 report by accountants Deloitte, the club had an annual revenue of €424.2 million for the previous year, and Forbes valued the club at $1.944 billion. In 2018, annual revenue increased to €513.7 million, and Forbes valued the club at $2.183 billion. In 2019, revenue increased to €604 million (£533 million) according to Deloitte, with the club breaching the half a billion pounds mark.

In the media

Liverpool featured in the first edition of BBC's Match of the Day, which screened highlights of their match against Arsenal at Anfield on 22 August 1964. The first football match to be televised in colour was between Liverpool and West Ham United, broadcast live in March 1967. Liverpool striker and 1947 league title winner Albert Stubbins appeared on the front cover of The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the only footballer to be depicted. Liverpool fans featured in the Pink Floyd song "Fearless", in which they sang excerpts from "You'll Never Walk Alone". To mark the club's appearance in the 1988 FA Cup final, Liverpool released the "Anfield Rap", a song featuring John Barnes and other members of the squad.

A docudrama on the Hillsborough disaster, written by Jimmy McGovern, was screened in 1996. It featured Christopher Eccleston as Trevor Hicks, who lost two teenage daughters in the disaster, went on to campaign for safer stadiums, and helped to form the Hillsborough Families Support Group. Liverpool featured in the 2001 film The 51st State, in which ex-hitman Felix DeSouza (Robert Carlyle) is a keen supporter of the team and the last scene takes place at a match between Liverpool and Manchester United. The club also featured in the 1984 children's television show Scully, about a young boy who tries to gain a trial with Liverpool. The Doctor Who episode "The Halloween Apocalypse", aired in October 2021, features The Doctor (played by Jodie Whittaker) exiting the TARDIS outside Anfield, as she exclaims: "Liverpool? Anfield! Klopp era, classic!".

In 2024, Liverpool was named the most-watched club in world football across the last five seasons by media analytics firm Nielsen with an average per season global broadcast audience of more than 724 million across league and cup fixtures.

Players

First-team squad

As of 1 September 2026

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Reserves and Academy

Players with at least one first-team appearance for Liverpool.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Retired numbers

Since 11 July 2025, Liverpool have not issued the number 20 to any men's, women's, academy, or foundation squad player. It was retired in memory of Diogo Jota, who died in a car crash with his brother, André Silva in Cernadilla, Spain on 3 July 2025.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Club captains

Since the establishment of the club in 1892, 44 players have been club captain of Liverpool F.C. Andrew Hannah became the first captain of the club after Liverpool separated from Everton and formed its own club. Alex Raisbeck, who was club captain from 1899 to 1909, was the longest serving captain before being overtaken by Steven Gerrard who served 12 seasons starting from the 2003–04 season. The present captain is Virgil van Dijk, who has served since the 2023–24 season.

Honours

In terms of the number of trophies won, Liverpool is regarded as the most successful club in English football. 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 the record-equalling twentieth and most recent was in 2025. Meanwhile, the club's first success in the FA Cup came in 1965. In the 1980s, Liverpool had its most successful decade, when the club won six League titles, two FA Cups, four League Cups, one Football League Super Cup, five Charity Shields (one shared) and two European Cups. In 2020, Liverpool became the first English club to have won a League title in eight different decades.

The club has accumulated more top-flight wins and points than any other English team. Liverpool also has the highest average league finishing position (3.3) for the 50-year period from 1965 to 2015, and second-highest average league finishing position for the period 1900–1999 after Arsenal, with an average league placing of 8.7.

Liverpool is the most successful British club in international football with fourteen trophies, having won the European Cup/UEFA Champions League (UEFA's premier club competition) six times, an English record that is only surpassed by Real Madrid and AC 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 also hold the English record of three wins in the UEFA Cup, UEFA's secondary club competition. Liverpool also hold the English record of four wins in the UEFA Super Cup. In 2019, the club won the FIFA Club World Cup for the first time, and also became the first English club to win the international treble of the Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup.

s shared record

Minor titles

Lancashire League

Winners (1): 1892–93

Sheriff of London Charity Shield

Winners (1): 1906

Doubles and trebles

Doubles:

League and FA Cup (1): 1985–86

League and League Cup (2): 1981–82, 1982–83

League and European Cup (2): 1976–77, 1983–84

League and UEFA Cup (2): 1972–73, 1975–76

League Cup and European Cup (1): 1980–81

FA Cup and League Cup (1): 2021–22

Trebles:

League, League Cup and European Cup (1): 1983–84

FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup (1): 2000–01