Monday, August 1, 2022 at 4:54 PM• Tom Rofekamp

Football history is one that has been pinned on for centuries. Many stories about, for example, club legends, unforgettable cup victories or historic title races remain in the memory, but just as many chronicles are forgotten in the masses. In the Football Chronicles section, Voetbalzone ensures that the stories that deserve an eternal place in our memory, get them. Featuring in this issue: John Houlding, the Liverpool legend no one outside the city knows about.

John Houlding became the second person in history to have a statue outside Anfield Road in 2018 after Bill Shankly. How did Houlding earn that illustrious spot in that duo? Born in 1833, the businessman founded a football club in 1878: St. Domingos Football Club, named after the church of the same name that had opened in Liverpool seven years earlier. However, as interest in the club was not limited to churchgoers, the name was changed to Everton Football Club within a year, after the district it was located in.

Originally Everton played his games in the public Stanley Park. However, in 1884 the club moved to nearby Anfield Road, which was rented by a friend of Houlding’s. Less than a year later, the businessman himself became the owner of the stadium. As football became a professional sport and Everton was soon able to claim the first league title, Houlding and his financial glasses saw their chance. Houlding raised the rent by 150 percent per season, after which Everton decided to leave Anfield in 1892. The club decided to build a new, cheaper stadium: Goodison Park.

However, Everton’s departure was no reason for Houlding to give up. The same year, another new club was founded by the entrepreneur: Liverpool FC. The new team – which initially played in blue and white – won its first national title nine years later. For example, Houlding founded the two biggest clubs in the Merseyside region, and one of the world’s biggest football rivalries.