In 1892, Everton left their landlord with an empty stadium due to a rent dispute, so they formed a football club just to fill it. This club has since won more titles than any other in English football

A bitter rent dispute split Everton and created Liverpool, forming Merseyside’s fiercest football rivalry. Merseyside’s oldest rivalry likes to present itself as a story about football, about who has the rights to a city divided down the middle. But strip away 130 years of scarves and songs and what’s left is a much smaller and more petty story of a landlord who refused to negotiate a rent increase and ended up owning a stadium built for a club that was no longer his.The story goes back to 1884 when Everton moved to Anfield and turned the then developing ground into their new home. Eight years later, Everton left Goodison Park after bitter disagreements 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 formed to keep Anfield busy was Liverpool Football Club.

Everton were at Anfield long before Liverpool existed

Everton’s origins can be traced back to 1878 when the club was formed from a 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 long as the landlord was unhappy with the noise and unruly behavior surrounding Everton’s matches, particularly following the club’s 1884 Liverpool Cup success. Everton therefore needed another home and that search led them to Anfield later that year.The ground was initially leased from local brewers John and Richard Orrell, while Everton president John Houlding subsequently bought the ground outright in 1885. Everton played their first match at Anfield against Earlestown on 27 September 1884, winning 5–0.Anfield quickly became an important part of Everton’s early rise as the club turned professional, being based there and hosting their first Football League match against Accrington Stanley on 8 September 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 the time, there was no reason to believe that Anfield would eventually become synonymous with a completely different club.

The tenancy dispute that changed Merseyside football

The relationship between Houlding and the Everton board gradually deteriorated as the club’s success and popularity grew, but the dispute was complicated by Houlding’s unusual position within the Everton structure.He was not only the owner of the club. Houlding became involved with Everton during their search for a new home, serving as club president and eventually acquiring Anfield himself in 1885, after the land passed from its original owner, brewer John Orrell. This allowed him to hold two roles at once: he was both the leading figure of Everton and the private owner from whom the club leased its stadium.For a time this arrangement seemed advantageous to all. Houlding could support the club while benefiting from the increasing value of the pitch, and Everton had a safe home in which their crowds and reputation continued to grow. However, as the club became more successful, this arrangement created an increasingly difficult conflict between Houlding’s interests as president and his interests as owner of Anfield.Houlding wanted Everton to commit to a financial arrangement which he believed properly reflected the increasing value of the ground, while members of the club’s committee wanted a long-term lease on terms they considered more reasonable. The rent rose from £100 a year in 1884 to £250 in 1892, and the committee also resisted Houlding’s preference to sell the land to the club rather than continue with the conventional lease.The disagreement grew increasingly bitter as neither side saw the issue as merely a routine business negotiation. Houlding believed he had helped establish Everton at Anfield and was entitled to benefit from success on the pitch, while the committee feared the club was becoming financially dependent on one individual controlling both its home and its management.Eventually, the two sides could no longer stay together.On 15 March 1892, Houlding and his allies formally separated from Everton after the dispute had reached breaking point. Everton moved across Stanley Park to Mere Green Field, which became Goodison Park, leaving Anfield without the club that had occupied it for eight years.Goodison Park was officially opened on 24 August 1892, with 12,000 people attending the ceremony, and Everton have remained linked to the ground ever since.Houlding, meanwhile, had quite a different problem.He still had Anfield, but the team no longer played there.

An empty Anfield led to Liverpool Football Club

Rather than let his land sit unused, Houlding and a group of collaborators set about creating a new football club that could make Anfield their home.The process began in March 1892 when Houlding and his associates laid the foundations of a new club following their split from Everton. William E. Barclay was credited with suggesting the name Liverpool, while the new organization was initially known as Liverpool Football Club and Athletic Grounds Limited.By the time Liverpool was formally incorporated on 3 June 1892, Everton had already moved across Stanley Park and established themselves at Goodison Park. Liverpool then took over Anfield, giving the impression in later retellings that the two clubs once shared the ground. In fact, first was the departure of Everton and the direct result was the arrival of Liverpool.This sequence gives the story its special power. Liverpool did not grow out of a shared stadium or emerge as a second club to Everton; was created to occupy the ground Everton vacated after a tenancy dispute. One of England’s biggest football clubs started because another club decided they no longer wanted to play at the same address.Liverpool spent their first season in the Lancashire League before entering the second tier of the Football League in 1893, beginning a journey that would eventually take them to the very top of English and European football.

The club that Everton was created by leaving Anfield became an English giant

There is a particularly neat symmetry to what happened next, as the club born from Everton’s departure eventually became one of the most decorated teams in English football.Liverpool have now won 20 English top-flight titles, with their last championship coming under Arne Slot in 2024-25, bringing them level with Manchester United for the all-time record. They have also won six European Cups, with European triumphs coming in 1977, 1978, 1981, 1984, 2005 and 2019.Everton’s history remains substantial, even if its trophy cabinet has not kept pace with its neighbours.The Toffees have won nine of England’s top-flight championships, five FA Cups and the 1984–85 European Cup Winners’ Cup, while their last major honor was the FA Cup in 1995. Their nine league titles remain a significant part of the club’s history, with the first coming at Anfield in 1890–91.This meant that the stadium where Everton won their first league championship would eventually become home to a club that would equal England’s record for most titles.The irony is hard to miss.

Liverpool and Everton almost got together again

More than a century after Everton left Anfield, the two clubs have come astonishingly close to reversing the separation that sparked their rivalry.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 seater at Stanley Park, while Everton were also considering the option of their own stadium. Liverpool City Council and the Northwest Development Agency urged the clubs to consider the economic and regeneration benefits of the joint project.The idea never developed into a shared home, but around 2010 it returned in a much more unusual form.Mersey Stadia-Connex Group designed the bizarre “Siamese-style” stadium, essentially two separate pitches connected by a central spine. The proposal called for a 60,000-seat stadium for Liverpool alongside a 50,000-seat stadium for Everton, allowing the clubs to maintain separate identities while sharing infrastructure, potentially saving around £200 million.The proposed complex was even more ambitious than simply putting two football pitches side by side, with plans including 150 managers’ boxes, a 300-bed hotel and an underground car park capable of holding 1,350 vehicles.

Liverpool and Everton were once given a bizarre joint stadium plan that would have put the two clubs side by side / Image: The Athletic

The project was also linked with hopes of boosting Liverpool’s prospects in England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup, although the tournament was ultimately awarded to Russia.None of the clubs ultimately pushed through this idea.Liverpool eventually decided to stay at Anfield and expand their historic home, while Everton decided to move from Goodison Park to Bramley-Moore Dock.As a result, 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.