Liverpool F.C.

General

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Liverpool
Full name	Liverpool Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Reds
Founded	15 March 1892
Ground	Anfield (Capacity: 45,276)
Owner	Fenway Sports Group
Chairman	Tom Werner
Manager	Jürgen Klopp
Current League	Premier League
2020–21	Premier League, 3rd
Website	Club home page
Current season

Liverpool Football Club are a Premier League football club based in Liverpool, England. The club have won more European trophies than any other English team with five European Cups, three UEFA Cups and three UEFA Super Cups. They have also won 19 League titles (including a Premier League title), seven FA Cups, a record eight League Cups, and 15 FA Community Shields.

The club was founded in 1892 and joined the Football League the following year. They have played at Anfield since its formation. Liverpool established itself as a major force in both English and European football during the 1970s and '80s when Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley led the club to 11 League titles and seven European trophies.

Liverpool was the ninth highest-earning football club in the world for 2013–14, with an annual revenue of €306 million, and the world's eighth most valuable football club in 2015, valued at $982 million. The club holds many long-standing rivalries, most notably with Manchester United and the Merseyside derby with Everton.

The club's supporters have been involved in two major tragedies. The first was the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985, where escaping fans were pressed against a collapsing wall in the Heysel Stadium, with 39 people—mostly Italians and Juventus fans—losing their life, after which English clubs were given a five-year ban from European competition. The second was the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, where 96 Liverpool supporters lost their lives in a crush against perimeter fencing. 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".

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 £174.1m 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 holding company of the club to be £350m 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 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. According to a 2018 report by 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 April 2020, the owners of the club came under fire from fans and the media for deciding to furlough all non-playing staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to this, the club made a U-turn on the decision and apologised for their initial decision. In April 2021 Forbes valued the club at $4.1 billion, a two-year increase of 88%, making it the world's fifth-most-valuable football club.

Players

First-team squad

As of 6 October 2020

No. Position Player 1 GK Alisson 3 MF Fabinho 4 DF Virgil van Dijk (3rd captain) 5 MF Georginio Wijnaldum (4th captain) 6 MF Thiago Alcântara 7 MF James Milner (vice-captain) 8 MF Naby Keïta 9 FW Roberto Firmino 10 FW Sadio Mané 11 FW Mohamed Salah 12 DF Joe Gomez 13 GK Adrián 14 MF Jordan Henderson (captain) 15 MF Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain 16 MF Marko Grujić 17 MF Curtis Jones

No. Position Player 18 FW Takumi Minamino 20 FW Diogo Jota 21 DF Kostas Tsimikas 23 MF Xherdan Shaqiri 26 DF Andrew Robertson 27 FW Divock Origi 32 DF Joël Matip 47 DF Nathaniel Phillips 58 MF Ben Woodburn 59 MF Harry Wilson 62 GK Caoimhín Kelleher 66 DF Trent Alexander-Arnold 67 MF Harvey Elliott 72 DF Sepp van den Berg 76 DF Neco Williams

Out on loan

No. Position Player 22 GK Loris Karius (at Union Berlin until 30 June 2021) 54 MF Sheyi Ojo (at Cardiff City until 30 June 2021)

No. Position Player 73 GK Kamil Grabara (at AGF until 30 June 2021) — FW Taiwo Awoniyi (at Union Berlin until 30 June 2021)

Club alumni

Former players

Main article: Liverpool F.C. players

Managers

Main article: Liverpool F.C. managers

Honours

Domestic

League

• First Division/Premier League
  • Winners (19): 1900–01, 1905–06, 1921–22, 1922–23, 1946–47, 1963–64, 1965–66, 1972–73, 1975–76, 1976–77, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1985–86, 1987–88, 1989–90, 2019–20
• Second Division
  • Winners (4): 1893–94, 1895–96, 1904–05, 1961–62

Cups

• FA Cup
  • Winners (7): 1964–65, 1973–74, 1985–86, 1988–89, 1991–92, 2000–01, 2005–06
• Football League Cup
  • Winners (8) (record): 1980–81, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1994–95, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2011–12
• FA Charity / Community Shield
  • Winners (15): 1964*, 1965*, 1966, 1974, 1976, 1977*, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1986*, 1988, 1989, 1990*, 2001, 2006 (* shared)

European

• European Cup/UEFA Champions League
  • Winners (6) (English record): 1976–77, 1977–78, 1980–81, 1983–84, 2004–05, 2018–19
• UEFA Cup
  • Winners (3) (English record): 1972–73, 1975–76, 2000–01
• European Super Cup/UEFA Super Cup
  • Winners (4) (English record): 1977, 2001, 2005, 2019

Worldwide

• FIFA Club World Cup
  • Winners (1): 2019

Doubles and Trebles

• Doubles:
  • League and FA Cup: 1
    • 1985–86
  • League and League Cup: 2
    • 1981–82, 1982–83
  • European Double (League and European Cup): 1
    • 1976–77
  • League and UEFA Cup: 2
    • 1972–73, 1975–76
  • League Cup and European Cup: 1
    • 1980–81
• Trebles
  • League, League Cup and European Cup: 1
    • 1983–84
  • FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup: 1
    • 2000–01

Especially short competitions, such as the FA Community Shield and the UEFA Super Cup, are not generally considered to contribute towards a Double or Treble.

See also

• Logo history of Liverpool F.C.

External links

• Official website

Independent sites

• LFCHistory.net Statistics website
• Liverpool at Sky Sports
• Liverpool at Premier League
• Liverpool