Merseyside Derby - History

History

Everton FC were founded in 1878 and from 1884 played their home matches at Anfield, which was owned by club chairman John Houlding. Several board members of Everton were members of the Liberal Party who were associated with the National Temperance Federation whilst Houlding was a Conservative Party member and a brewer whose business interests were diametrically opposed to the temperance movement. Politics and disputes over money meant that Houlding was increasingly at odds with other members of the Everton board. The result was that in 1892 the Everton directors vacated Anfield and purchased a new ground at Goodison Park on the other side of Stanley Park. Houlding responded by founding a new club to use Anfield: Liverpool.

The professional clubs of the 1890s attracted much interest among the public, on and off the field. The 1867 Reform Act had given what would become football attending masses the opportunity to vote in the local and national elections. Everton and Liverpool attendances would reach around 10-15,000 in a local authority ward with a population of 23,000. Local politicians saw involvement in the two football clubs as an opportunity to gain media exposure to the local electorate.

At Everton board level, the main friction that emerged was that between the retention of an autocratic ownership structure and the creation of a more democratic one which closely mapped the sociopolitical divide.

Religion is sometimes put forward as a reason for the split with Liverpool founder Houlding a prominent Orangeman and Everton's new chairman George Mahon a rival Liberal Home Rule advocating MP, but at the time of the split, among the Everton committee members, James Clement Baxter was the only Catholic, the rest were Protestants.