Of all the badges in the football league, we would be hard-pressed to find a badge with more history and meaning behind it than Liverpool’s. (PIC 1) On the crest we have the Shankly gates. Bill Shankly was a Liverpool legend who once said: “Football is not a matter of life and death, I can assure you it is much more important than that.” On the left and right of the badge are the eternal flames that represent the 96 lives lost on 15th April 1989, at Hillsborough. I Can’t Imagine (a nod to John Lennon.) any club other than Liverpool and the people of Liverpool having a deeper understanding of Life, Death, and Football. This badge made me sit up and think about the irony of Bill Shankly’s words.
Thanks, go to Nige777, for his feedback and help with this page. Liverpool FC was founded, as the badge displays in 1892, after a rent increase at the Anfield site made the occupiers Everton go and build their own ground at Goodison Park, which was the first purpose-built football stadium in the country. Parting company with the owner John Holding left him without a team. A member of the Everton coaching staff remained loyal to Holding, and together they quickly set about building Liverpool Football Club. The early club was not made up of Scousers, or even Brits. Everton turncoat, Irishman John McKenna got all but one of the team from Scotland, and Liverpool were known at the time as, the team of all Macs. They quickly established themselves and had a growing army of fans who had to be housed somewhere, so improvements to the ground were made and they moved in. A towering mound of earth and cinders became known as The Kop after the Liverpool Echo compared it to the Spionkop, a hill where Boer guerrillas inflicted a heavy and bloody defeat on the British Army just a few years earlier. This was made even more poignant by the fact that many of the dead came from Liverpool and the North East. The liver bird which is, of course, the symbol of Liverpool stands in the centre of the badge. being non-existent is as rare as a Phil Thompson smile, though the beaks are similar.
They tie in with the birth of the city which was founded in 1207 by King John. The King needed a new port to ship his troops around and control the Irish Sea. Liverpool adopted King John’s seal which had an eagle with a sprig of broom in its beak, and it was incorporated into the city’s coat of arms. (PIC 2) The arms show a cormorant in the shield holding a branch of seaweed called laver in its beak, which replaced a sprig of broom from the seal. Broom was the symbol of the royal house of the Plantagenets. In 1644 the seal was lost and a new one made. For some unknown reason on making the new seal, the eagle was replaced with a cormorant. These birds were more familiar around Lancashire, so it’s my guess that is why it was changed, and the broom was replaced by seaweed. The cormorant later became known as the mythical liverbird, a cross between an eagle and a cormorant. There is also a seaweed-holding cormorant on the crest above the shield. The supporters, in these arms, consist of, on the left, Neptune with his sea-green mantle flowing, the waist wreathed with laver, and on his head an eastern crown in gold. In the right-hand his trident with the cormorant in the banner. On the right is a Triton, wreathed as the left supporter, and blowing his shell, with the right hand supporting a banner, with a ship under sail symbolizing the port.
In heraldry, supporters are usually described as dexter=right and sinister=left. They are usually described the other way around, as if viewing from behind, but I have kept it simple. The liver bird can be spotted in and around Liverpool today, for example on top of the Liver Building. (PIC 3) I believe another one can be spotted behind the bar at the Woolpack in Emmerdale. Back to the present badge, and under the Shankly Gates are the words: “YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE”. (PIC 4) It comes from a song that features in the musical Carousel. It has been the Liverpool national anthem since the 1960s, when Scouse band Gerry and the Pacemakers had a hit with it, along with: “Ferry Cross the Mersey”. Being born in 1958 I remember singing these songs along with the Beatles songs at the time. “You’ll Never Walk Alone” was incorporated into the badge, along with the symbolic flames in the year of their centenary 1992, as a means of honouring those who died so tragically at Hillsborough.
So all you fans who insist on standing and moaning in your all-seated stadiums, just sit and reflect on the 96 men, women and children, who died that day because they were not seated. Not to mention the ripples that touched hundreds of family members who lost loved ones. South Yorkshire coroner Mr Stefan Popper said at the inquest: “The only safe stadium in my view is an empty one.” He may be right, but thanks to the Taylor report we are all much safer now we have to sit in all-seated stadiums in the Premiership, where the larger crowds gather, and life and death is not a matter of football. In July 2021, a coroner ruled that Andrew Devine, who died after 32 years after suffering severe and irreversible brain damage was the 97th victim. I am sure all our thoughts are with his family as well as the other 96 families, and the hundreds of others whose live were mentally and physically changed forever that day.
Previous badges include a white Liverbird alone, (PIC 5) in a shield with the club name beneath, (PIC 6) and with the initials LFC underneath. (PIC 7) The name Liverpool is first found at around 1190 as Liuerpul. It stems from the Anglo-Saxon Liver, meaning thick or muddy and Pol, meaning a pool or creek. So, if you want to see what can become of a muddy creek go and visit Liverpool. It is a great city full of interest and places to visit.
Liverpool never use their nickname of the 1940s, “The Red Devils”, which is rivals Man United’s nickname. They are known as just ‘The Reds” these days. Manchester United are bitter rivals to Liverpool, due to the many title clashes over the years. Everton are also Liverpool’s rivals for obvious reasons, like their clash over the field that is now Anfield. Anfield holds 54,074 which is 20,000 more than most Premiership clubs. Many thanks to whoever replied to me from Liverpool, I can’t make out the name from the signature as it is illegible, but I am very grateful to you and Nige. For more on Liverpool, walk accompanied to www.liverpoolfc.com
