Merseyside’s oldest rivalry likes to present itself as a story about football, about who has bragging rights to a city split down the middle. But strip away 130 years of scarves and songs and what’s left is a much smaller and pettier story about a landlord who refused to negotiate a rent increase and ended up owning a stadium built for a club that wasn’t his anymore.The story stretches back to 1884, when Everton moved into Anfield and turned what was then a developing patch of land into their new home. Eight years later, Everton left for Goodison Park after a bitter disagreement with John Houlding, the club’s president and the man who owned Anfield. Houlding was left with a stadium but no football team, and the solution he came up with would change English football forever.The club he created to keep Anfield occupied was Liverpool Football Club.
Everton were at Anfield long before Liverpool existed
Everton’s origins can be traced to 1878, when the club was formed from the football team associated with St Domingo’s Church, initially playing at Stanley Park before moving to Priory Road as crowds grew.The move to Priory Road did not last particularly long because the landowner became unhappy with the noise and unruly behaviour surrounding Everton matches, particularly after the club’s 1884 Liverpool Cup success. Everton therefore needed another home, and that search took them to Anfield later that year.The ground was initially leased from local brewers John and Richard Orrell, while Everton’s president John Houlding subsequently bought the land outright in 1885. Everton played their first match at Anfield against Earlestown on September 27, 1884, winning 5-0.Anfield quickly became an important part of Everton’s early rise, with the club becoming professional while based there and hosting its first Football League fixture against Accrington Stanley on September 8, 1888.The biggest moment came in the 1890-91 season, when Everton won their first English championship at Anfield, attracting crowds of up to 20,000 as they established themselves among the country’s leading clubs.At that point, there was little reason to believe Anfield would eventually become synonymous with a completely different club.
The rent dispute that changed Merseyside football
The relationship between Houlding and Everton’s committee gradually deteriorated as the club’s success and popularity increased, but the dispute was complicated by Houlding’s unusual position within Everton’s structure.He was not simply the club’s landlord. Houlding had become involved with Everton during their search for a new home, served as the club’s president, and eventually acquired Anfield himself in 1885, after the land passed from its original owner, brewer John Orrell. That left him occupying two roles at once: he was both a leading figure within Everton and the private owner from whom the club rented its stadium.For a time, that arrangement appeared convenient for everyone. Houlding could support the club while benefiting from the growing value of the ground, and Everton had a secure home in which their crowds and reputation continued to expand. As the club became more successful, however, the arrangement created an increasingly difficult conflict between Houlding’s interests as president and his interests as Anfield’s owner.Houlding wanted Everton to commit to a financial arrangement that he believed properly reflected the ground’s rising value, while members of the club’s committee wanted a long-term rental agreement on terms they considered more reasonable. The rent had risen from £100 a year in 1884 to £250 by 1892, and the committee also resisted Houlding’s preference for selling the ground to the club rather than continuing with a conventional lease.The disagreement became increasingly bitter because neither side viewed the issue as merely a routine business negotiation. Houlding believed he had helped establish Everton at Anfield and was entitled to benefit from the ground’s success, while the committee feared that the club was becoming financially dependent on one individual who controlled both its home and its leadership.Eventually, the two sides could no longer remain together.On March 15, 1892, Houlding and his allies formally split from Everton after the dispute reached breaking point. Everton moved across Stanley Park to Mere Green Field, which would become Goodison Park, leaving Anfield without the club that had occupied it for eight years.Goodison Park officially opened on August 24, 1892, with 12,000 people attending the ceremony, and Everton have remained associated with the ground ever since.Houlding, meanwhile, had a rather different problem.He still had Anfield, but there was no longer a team playing there.
An empty Anfield led to Liverpool Football Club
Rather than allow his ground to sit unused, Houlding and a group of associates set about creating a new football club that could make Anfield its home.The process began in March 1892, with Houlding and his associates establishing the foundations of the new club after their split from Everton. William E. Barclay was credited with suggesting the name Liverpool, while the new organisation was initially known as Liverpool Football Club and Athletic Grounds Limited.By the time Liverpool was formally registered on June 3, 1892, Everton had already moved across Stanley Park and begun establishing themselves at Goodison Park. Liverpool then took over Anfield, creating the impression in later retellings that the two clubs had once shared the ground. In reality, Everton’s departure came first, and Liverpool’s arrival followed as the direct consequence of it.That sequence gives the story its peculiar force. Liverpool did not grow out of a shared stadium or emerge as a second club alongside Everton; it was created to occupy the ground Everton had abandoned after the rent dispute. One of English football’s greatest clubs began because another club decided it no longer wanted to play at the same address.Liverpool spent their first season in the Lancashire League before entering the Football League’s second tier in 1893, beginning a journey that would eventually take them to the very top of English and European football.
The club Everton created by leaving Anfield became an English giant
There is a particularly neat symmetry to what happened next because the club that was born from Everton’s departure eventually became one of the most decorated teams in English football.Liverpool have now won 20 English top-flight league titles, with their latest championship coming under Arne Slot in 2024-25, taking them level with Manchester United for the all-time record. They have also won six European Cups, with their European triumphs coming in 1977, 1978, 1981, 1984, 2005 and 2019.Everton’s own history remains substantial, even if their trophy cabinet has not kept pace with their neighbours.The Toffees have won nine English top-flight championships, five FA Cups and the 1984-85 European Cup-Winners’ Cup, while their most recent major honour was the 1995 FA Cup. Their nine league titles remain a significant part of the club’s history, with the first coming at Anfield in 1890-91That means the stadium where Everton won their first league championship eventually became the home of the club that would go on to equal the English record for top-flight titles.The irony becomes difficult to miss.
Liverpool and Everton nearly came together again
More than a century after Everton left Anfield, the two clubs came surprisingly close to reversing the separation that created their rivalry in the first place.In the early 2000s, Liverpool and Everton were involved in discussions about the possibility of sharing a new stadium, with Liverpool exploring plans for a 60,000-seat ground in Stanley Park while Everton were also considering their own stadium options. Liverpool City Council and the Northwest Development Agency encouraged the clubs to consider the economic and regeneration benefits of a joint project.The idea never developed into a shared home, but it returned in a much more unusual form around 2010.The Mersey Stadia-Connex Group proposed a bizarre “Siamese-style” stadium, essentially two separate grounds joined together by a central spine. The proposal envisaged a 60,000-seat stadium for Liverpool alongside a 50,000-seat stadium for Everton, allowing the clubs to retain separate identities while sharing infrastructure and potentially saving around £200 million.The proposed complex was even more ambitious than simply putting two football grounds next to one another, with plans including 150 executive boxes, a 300-bed hotel and an underground car park capable of holding 1,350 vehicles.
Liverpool and Everton were once pitched a bizarre joined stadium plan that would have put both clubs side by side/ Image: The Athletic
The project was also linked to hopes of strengthening Liverpool’s prospects in England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup, although the tournament was ultimately awarded to Russia.Neither club ultimately pursued the idea.Liverpool eventually chose to remain at Anfield and expand their historic home, while Everton pursued their own move away from Goodison Park to Bramley-Moore Dock.The result is that the two clubs remain neighbours, but with separate homes and a rivalry that has survived every change in football around them.And that brings the story back to where it began: Anfield.
Leave a Reply