Liverpool Football Club is a professional association football club based in Liverpool, England. Liverpool play in the Premier League, and are the most successful club in the history of English football, having won more trophies than any other English club. They have won a record 18 English League titles, although the last time they won the title was in 1990. Liverpool have won five European Cups, an English record. Only A.C. Milan and Real Madrid have won Europe's premier club competition more times, although only one win has come in the UEFA Champions League era. They have won the FA Cup and League Cup seven times. They are also one of only five teams to have been awarded the prestigious UEFA Badge of Honour, which was awarded to the club in 2005 after their fifth UEFA Champions League victory.
Liverpool have played at Anfield since they were founded in 1892. However, plans have been formed to start work on a new 70,000 all reserved seat stadium, in the summer of 2010 near Stanley Park. The new stadium will be funded by Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who became the club's owners on February 6, 2007.
Liverpool have a large and diverse fanbase, who hold a string of long-standing rivalries with several other clubs; the most notable of these is with neighbours Everton, with whom they regularly contest the Merseyside derby. Liverpool also have a fierce rivalry with Manchester United, due to the success of both clubs, as well as their proximity to each other.
In their first season Liverpool won the Lancashire League, and were elected to the Football League Second Division for the 1893–94 season. Liverpool ended the season unbeaten as Second Division Champions, and were promoted to the First Division. Liverpool won their first Football League championship in the 1900–01 season, and were champions again in 1905–06. Liverpool played their first FA Cup final in 1914, but lost 1–0 to Burnley. In 1921–22 and 1922–23 Liverpool won their first back-to-back League titles. This was followed by the longest spell without a trophy in their history, which ended when Liverpool won the league during the 1946–47 season. However, Liverpool struggled following this success, and were relegated to the Second Division in 1953–54.
In December 1959, Bill Shankly was appointed manager, during his first year, he released 24 players and reshaped the squad.[ In 1961–1962, his third season as manager, Liverpool won the Second Division Championship by eight points and were promoted to the First Division, where they have remained ever since. In 1963–1964, Liverpool lifted the League Championship for the first time in 17 years. Liverpool were League Champions again in 1965–1966, having won their first FA Cup the previous season. Liverpool won their eighth league title and defeated Borussia Mönchengladbach to win their first European trophy, the UEFA Cup, in 1972–1973. However, a year later, following another FA Cup victory, Shankly retired, his assistant, Bob Paisley, became manager.
In 1975–1976, at the end of Paisley's second season in charge, Liverpool became champions, and won the UEFA Cup. The following year, Liverpool retained their League Championship, lost the FA Cup Final, but won their first European Cup, beating Borussia Mönchengladbach 3–1. Liverpool retained the trophy in 1978, beating Club Brugge 1–0, and in 1979 they broke another domestic record by winning the league title with 68 points, and only 16 goals conceded in 42 matches. In 1979–1980, Liverpool won the league title for the fourth time in five seasons, and Paisley's third European Cup victory came in 1980–1981. In the following two seasons, Liverpool won a League Championship and League Cup "Double". During the nine seasons Paisley managed the club, Liverpool won a total of 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.
The succession of managers appointed from within the club's staff is worthy of note. These managers are often referred to as "the boot room boys" after a part of Anfield where the Liverpool staff discussed strategy and allegedly stored gin. Just as Shankly had been succeeded by Paisley, so too Paisley handed the reins to his assistant, veteran coach Joe Fagan. He was 63 when he became manager in 1983–1984. In his first season in charge, Liverpool become the first English club to win three major trophies in a single season; the League title, the League Cup and the European Cup. Liverpool reached the European Cup final again in 1985. The match was against Juventus at the Heysel Stadium but before kick-off, disaster struck. Liverpool fans breached a fence separating the two groups of supporters and charged the Juventus fans. The resulting weight of people caused a retaining wall to collapse, killing 39 fans, mostly Italians.The match was played regardless and Liverpool lost 1–0 to Juventus. English clubs were consequently banned from participating in European competition for five years, with Liverpool receiving a ban for ten years, which was later reduced to six. Fourteen of their fans received convictions for involuntary manslaughter.
Kenny Dalglish became Liverpool's first player-manager in 1985. His reign saw the club win another three League Championships and two FA Cups including a league and cup Double in 1985–86. However, Liverpool's successes were overshadowed by the Hillsborough disaster. On April 15, 1989, when Liverpool were playing Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semi-final, 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 another nearly four years later having never regained consciousness, to make the total 96. After the Hillsborough tragedy there was a governmental review of stadium safety. Known as the Taylor Report, it paved the way for legislation requiring all-seater stadiums in the top-flight. The report ruled that the main reasons for the disaster were overcrowding due to a failure of police control.
2000–01, was Liverpool's most successful season for many years as the team completed a combination of the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup. They finished second in 2001–02, a season in which then manager Gerard Houllier underwent major heart surgery. Houllier would only win one more trophy in his time in charge, against a background of growing disquiet amongst Liverpool supporters, Houllier and Liverpool parted by mutual consent at the end of the 2003–04 season.
Spaniard Rafael Benítez took over and in his first season Liverpool finished fifth in the Premier League. The season had a surprising ending, however, as Liverpool won their fifth European Cup in Istanbul.[In 2005–06 Liverpool picked up 82 points in the Premiership, their highest points total in the top-flight since 1988, and ended the season by winning the FA Cup in yet another dramatic final, this time against West Ham. In 2006–07, the club's search for investment came to an end when American businessmen George Gillett and Tom Hicks became the owners of Liverpool F.C. in a deal valuing the club and its outstanding debts at £218.9 million. That season, Benítez guided the team to the UEFA Champions League final once again, where they lost 2–1 to A.C. Milan.
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