[Football] Liverpool F.C.

dangull said:

Its nothing like the Celtic v Rangers thing today though. Liverpool sing that Fields of Athenry song every time I watch a game. An irish folk song, with different lyrics admittingly.

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dangull said:

Its nothing like the Celtic v Rangers thing today though. Liverpool sing that Fields of Athenry song every time I watch a game. An irish folk song, with different lyrics admittingly.

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Knocky's Nose said:

you're a bloody good bunch and I'm chuffed to be on here.

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Herr Tubthumper said:

Whilst they have had a similar level of success, Liverpool F.C. do not seem to be disliked as Man U. At worst people seem ambivalent to them whereas Man U often engender hatred.

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Weststander said:

Everton’s Grand Old Team song was pinched from Celtic in 1983/84. Not because there’s any of Celtic connection or anti Rangers thing ... there wasn’t. It had been sometimes sung by kids in Liverpool since the 50’s.

According to research published on toffeeweb:

“However, it must be said that my research, and the majority of the more detailed research into the fans of Everton FC, conclude that the sectarian divisions of Glasgwegian, and even to some extent Mancunian, football supporters, are in no way matched by football supporters in Liverpool.

There, in fact, is overwhelming evidence to suggest that the fan base of both clubs is non-sectarian.
Although the Irish community had a flourishing amateur football leagues by the early 20th Century, this didn’t translate into professional football. There wasn’t the emergence of a catholic club as was the case in Ulster, Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh. Both clubs in Liverpool had emerged from the Methodist New Connexion chapel team of St. Domingo’s. Although Liverpool FC was criticised in the Socialist press for not allowing a collection for striking Dublin transport workers, there is nothing in the local catholic press of the time to denote a specific sectarian attachment in the pre- war years. Of the Irish national party councillors in the city, Taggart had shares in Everton, while Austin Harford did in Liverpool. [12]

The question of why a similarly Catholic-based club, such as Glasgow Celtic, didn’t emerge in Liverpool is key to an understanding this issue. The detailed research of David and Peter Kennedy into this issue explains why this didn’t happen in Liverpool even though Liverpool had the greatest proportional immigration of Irish in the late 19nth century of any British city – in 1871, Liverpool had 15.45% of its population of Irish origin. The nearest to it was Manchester with 9%. [13]

Crucially the Kennedys have discovered that, despite the development of many Catholic football teams in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, none of them developed into an equivalent of Glasgow |Celtic. They have given two reasons for this. Firstly, none of the teams lasted or were part of an organised league. Secondly, the local Catholic hierarchy actively discouraged the development of such a team for their own political reasons.

It was the policy of the Liverpool Catholic hierarchy to integrate the Irish into British culture, whilst maintaining their Catholicism. This was due to the perceived threat to the native population of their poverty and passive support for Irish nationalism; to counter this, the hierarchy tried to cultivate respectability through constructing a network of charitable organisations. It also tried to emphasise British, rather than Irish, culture in its schools.”.

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tomfitz12 said:

I used to dislike them massively but since moving there for uni I really like the club, and the city.

I haven't been to any city that embraces a big game day as Liverpool does and I cant get enough of it.

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GT49er said:

Less than that, I think. The person I was replying to (who said away days up there in the70s were grim) was apparently using the 'We' word to mean Palarse. But we (Brighton) didn't, I'm pretty sure.

Lovely city, lovely people, great club. Went to Uni. in Liverpool, and really loved standing on the Kop (for some of us Shankly did a brilliant PR job by playing University undergraduates in his team - lads we could identify with!). Haven't been back and done it since (well you can't these days anyway). Don't get me wrong, the Albion are my team; I don't like Liverpool FC anywhere near as much as I like the Albion, nowhere even close, but I still like them. I also think some of the more rabid anti-scousers are very wide of the mark, and a bit sad really.

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Thimble Keegan said:

I never suggested that Merseyside football fans are out rightly sectarian, I was drawing from information learned from friends and from my own personal knowledge. But Everton's support is drawn mainly from the catholic area of the city and they do have a song containing the line, "to hell with Liverpool and Rangers too". But to stress again, Liverpool & Everton is nothing like the Old Firm and never will be.

I also doubt that, despite Liverpool and Celtic sharing an anthem, there are any strong links between Merseyside and the Old Firm in the same way that Man Utd and Celtic share a "friendship" and the link-up of Rangers and Chelsea.

Albion & England forever.

Thimble Keegan
Worthing BHA

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tomfitz12 said:

I used to dislike them massively but since moving there for uni I really like the club, and the city.

I haven't been to any city that embraces a big game day as Liverpool does and I cant get enough of it.

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Southern Scouse said:

Although palaces win was a real moral dilemma...

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Yes Chef said:

I'm not keen on either, different sides of the same coin but I really don't like Southern reds.

You hear excuses like "my dad supports them", yeah, well, your Dad is a plastic **** too then

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chimneys said:

So what did you make of the cheeky scousers’ behaviour at Heysel, which repeatedly gets forgotten about in discussions about LFC? Oh yes, I recall, it was all the stadium’s fault! Always the victim.......

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Mr Putdown said:

Surely your real moral dilemma is when Brighton play Liverpool?

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Weststander said:

[MENTION=12875]harry wilson[/MENTION]’s tackle nailed this subject, reminding us that scouse families going back at least 60 years contain both EFC and LFC supporters. This has always been well known.

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