When the history books document football in 2025, it will certainly be remembered as an annus mirabilis for the city of Liverpool. 

In the red half of the city, Arne Slot has guided Liverpool FC to a first Premier League title since the COVID-affected 2019/20 season, allowing fans to collectively celebrate their club’s 20th league title, as opposed to greeting the triumph behind closed doors.

Meanwhile, across Stanley Park, Everton are preparing for arguably the most momentous change in the club’s modern history.

The club will leave its historic Goodison Park stadium at the end of the 2024/25 season to move to a state-of-the-art new home at Bramley Moore Dock.

These two seismic events in the history of football in city of Liverpool have coincided with a new golden age of fan culture, as more and more fans look to document their match going experience through photography, particularly on social media.

As fans of the region’s two biggest clubs get to experience a season that will go down in the history books, some of those involved in documenting this seismic year explained why it is essential to capture this through the eyes of the supporters.

Two Liverpool fans hold a banner
Image Credit: Jacqui McAssey
Two Liverpool fans hold a banner outside Anfield

Photographing Everton’s ‘Goodbye to Goodison’

At the time of writing, Everton have just two home games before the club bids its final goodbye to Goodison Park before closing the doors after 133 years.

Lewis Guy is an Everton fan and photographer who has been taking pictures at home games for several years.

His work is featured in an exhibition, which is currently being held at the Museum of Liverpool, titled Goodbye to Goodison which captures the final year at the stadium through images taken by fans.

As the final game at Goodison draws closer, Guy explained that he felt a mix of excitement and trepidation ahead of the move.

He said: “I can’t really define what it is that’s special about Goodison. There is just a sense of kind of history and heritage with it. I think a lot of people are afraid of losing that.

“There are a lot of special memories. For me, it’s me, my dad and my granddad. My granddad sadly passed away and when you’re taking photos there, you get a sense of that.

“There’s a wall outside which has got family plaques. We’ve got one there. You can see people going before every game and they go up to their plaque, they touch it, they take flowers, they take a photo. It’s just a special place.”

Everton fans queue to buy chips outside Goodison Park
Image taken by Lewis Guy and provided by the Museum of Liverpool

‘The new stadium’s phenomenal’

Despite the special memories at Goodison, he accepts that the club needs to keep pace with the modern football.

“I’ve been down to Bramley Moore a couple of times and done a bit of a walk around. I’m looking forward to it. It’s still kind of tinged with sadness. I wish in some regards we didn’t. We weren’t leaving Goodison Park.

“But I think the way football is now commercially, it makes sense. Goodison is a stadium that we can’t expand. There aren’t the corporate offerings that perhaps a Premier League team that wants to push on needs to be offering. But I think what they have done is come up with a fantastic follow-up.

“The new stadium’s phenomenal. The design of it, it’s really in keeping with the local area. There’s a lot of old red brick warehouses, a lot of docks around there. And it doesn’t look out of place.”

Museum of Liverpool exhibition is an important ‘piece of social history’

Goodbye to Goodison is curated by a fellow Everton fan, Chris Wardle, who has been visiting the ground as a fan since 1997.

While the exhibition is now open there is one final touch yet to be added, with space saved for an image from the final game of the season.

Wardle, who has also photographed Everton fans at the ground, believes the exhibition is not only important to capture the fans’ experience but also provides an important piece of social history on a stadium which is deeply embedded within its local community.

“Goodbye to Goodison is a photo display of about 18 photos at Museum of Liverpool,” Wardle said.

“It documents the last season of Goodison Park but away from the pitch so we’re looking at the pubs and the fan rituals and routines and the meeting places that make Goodison Park special.

Everton fans outside Goodison Park
Image by Chris Wardle courtesy the Museum of Liverpool

“I think it’s important not just for football fans, I think it’s a really lovely social commentary on what Goodison and the surrounding area is and why it’s so ingrained in its community.

“So we look at a few themes around chippies and bars and retail and then like community as well so it’s just a it’s just a nice selection of photos that really kind of hopefully hope does justice to to Goodison Park in its final season.

“The last game will be a sad day. I think it’ll be a fun day as well though so we’ll be a lot of drinks, a lot of singing and hopefully a win.”

Liverpool FC fans had time to mobilise before title win

While Everton fans are preparing to say goodbye to the ground known affectionately as the Old Lady, Liverpool fans are celebrating a 20th league title, which was secured with their emphatic 5-1 win over Tottenham.

Jacqui McAssey is a photographer, a senior lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University and the founder of Girlfans, a set of initiatives, including a successful print zine, aimed at increasing the visibility of female football fans and fostering a sense of belonging in female football culture.

McAssey is also a Liverpool FC fan and has been photographing fans at Anfield since the project’s inception in 2013.

She was at the stadium as Liverpool confirmed their league title on the 27th of April and was blown away by the atmosphere amongst the fans.

“It was really different and it was really sunny for a start and a gorgeous day,” McAssey explained.

“We knew if we won it was going to happen right then. So I guess it gave people time to like mobilise.

“The significant thing for me which actually made me laugh quite a lot was Virgil van Dijk telling everyone to wear red and they just did.

“There’s a whole culture around not wearing colours. And, if you think about it, not that long ago when Liverpool were in the Champions League in Paris, wearing colours actually was a problem leaving the stadium and going into the stadium. So I understand why a lot of people don’t wear them.

“But for this home game, I just it’s so funny how a whole fan base can be moved that easily. Wear red. That was it, everyone did most people did. And so to see that beforehand was lovely.”

‘It was like a carnival three hours before kick-off’

McAssey felt that the overwhelming emotion among the fans present at Anfield on this momentous occasion was one of togetherness, as fans united to celebrate the title-winners.

Although Slot has been instrumental in this, she believes that the influence of former manager Jurgen Klopp over the fan base remains strong.

She continued: “It was carnival like three hours before kick-off.

“There was a real sense of belonging, togetherness, and I think that was set up, I do think that was set up by Jürgen Klopp.

“I do think that because he always talks about togetherness. And he was very good at articulating what that meant.

 

“And I think that there’s been no huge separation. His message is still firmly there. I think as we’ve moved into this season of, yeah, that spirit of togetherness, which is, yeah, it’s all that anyone really wants, isn’t it, when they go to the football? And you can’t find that anywhere else.”

Although football can be so easily written off as a cause of division, particularly in a city with two significant clubs, the thing that unites all clubs is the universal fan experience of belonging and togetherness.

The important work of these social historians offers an important reminder of this in a year which will be remembered as one of the most important in the history of football in Liverpool.

(Featured images by Chris Wardle – courtesy of Museum of Liverpool – and Jacqui McAssey)

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