Liverpool And It's Great Tradition - A Living Testimony Of How Football And Politics Are Intimately Linked

Why football and politics are inseparable

Fans Respond To News Of Football Super League

Liverpool FC and its footballing affairs are intimately linked to politics.

Politicians elected from a particular constituency represent the region, the people, and their political aspirations. Politicians effectively become the mouthpiece of the common people, through which they make the government hear their voices. Football clubs play a similar role.

Football clubs hailing from a particular region represent the people from that area, as well as their opinions and their political aspirations. A football club created by the workers in an industrial town would represent the ideologies and the political message of the workers, for example.

Football clubs are not created by their current owners. Most football clubs have been founded by the common people in that area. Coming from the grassroots level, it becomes inevitable that a particular region's football club will also carry a form of affiliation towards a political ideology. This affiliation towards a political ideology is influenced by the common people living in that region.

Both football clubs and politics require one and the same thing - the support of the people. In order to get support from the people, both football clubs and the politicians need to amplify the voices and the aspirations of the people. Just like politicians, football clubs are nothing without their supporters, they derive all their power and legitimacy from the people - from the supporters.

A commonsensical argument laid forward by ignorant people usually goes in the direction of demanding not to mix politics with football. The notion that football and politics should be kept separate and that they should not be politicized is completely inconsistent with the origins of the sport.

This notion delegitimizes both the game's origins and the experiences and socio-economic conditions of the sport's followers, most of whom are from the working class.

We should not be ignorant of the fact that the premise underlying the idea that football and politics should be kept separate is wrong. It simply serves to exacerbate the intrinsically faulty notion that politics is a game played only by the elite, with working-class people on the sidelines.

Football as a sport has evolved from its working-class origins. Due to the industrial revolution, people started moving to towns in England in the 19th century. In its modern form, football began taking shape in these downs, and they later became institutionalized by official clubs and football leagues.

Liverpool and its relationship with the working-class population

Despite its ownership, Liverpool geographical location, geo-politcs and fanbase suggest that it represents the political aspirations of the working-class

The working-class movement is intrinsically linked to the philosophy of the Liverpool Football Club. The club has represented the political aspirations of the people of the Merseyside region since its institution. The fans are quite vocal in their opinions, something which can be seen and heard in the football matches inside Anfield.

As an industrial hub, Merseyside is densely populated by working-class people. The city and the club of Liverpool have always been a hub of activism to fight for workers' rights. During the 1980s, the atmosphere here was politically charged against the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher after the Hillsborough catastrophe.

Working-class movements, along with its relevance to politics and football in Liverpool, have emerged out of people's need to fight for survival. One of the most famous incidents highlighting Liverpool Football Club's solidarity with the workers was when Robbie Fowler publicly supported the dockworkers' strike.

Liverpool FC as the champions of the working-class movement

Robbie Fowler showing his support to the sacked dockworkers in a European game

In 1997, five hundred dockworkers were fired in Liverpool after they refused to cross the picket lines to show solidarity towards previously fired dockworkers. Robbie Fowler famously showed his solidarity by wearing a t-shirt under his jersey, saying, "Support the 500 sacked dockers." He scored in a European match and flaunted the jersey to express solidarity.

Although UEFA fined Robbie Fowler for voicing his "political opinions" in a football match, his action reminds us of the true working-class roots of football.

The vast majority of Liverpool supporters regard right-wing political ideas as openly and fundamentally incompatible with true club loyalty. They believe that Liverpool as a club represents the ideology of socialism and working-class solidarity. According to them, supporting the club equates to supporting the people of the city and their political aspirations.

Liverpool fans' activism could again be seen in its protest against the club's ownership over its involvement with the European Super League. Liverpool fans' unity is perhaps unmatched by any other club and this is reflected in the atmosphere at Anfield.