The Fans Who Make Football: Liverpool FC | Featured Documentary

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

that song

has become an anthem of resilience for a

football club

and the city

liverpool one of the poorest cities in

all of europe

ravaged by industrial decline and

political isolation

a city that ironically has had to stand

alone

at its very core is a football team and

its fans

some of the most committed supporters in

the world

being a football fan is not just for the

saturday it's been a football fan for

the weekend equally

being a citizen isn't just for the week

and not on a saturday being a citizen

and a football fan all the way through

here at its very roots we can discover

what it truly means

to be a liverpool fan

i think this club stands for

family hard work

and dreams liverpool

a city known across the world for a

famous bird

pop music the docks that once served an

empire

and a football club

in the 1970s and 80s liverpool football

club

reigned supreme winning an incredible

nine

league titles

but three decades have passed since that

last victory

for every liverpool fan 2020 is all

about one thing

winning the premier league

[Applause]

there's fans now go into the game we

weren't even born last time

we won the league we all know how

liverpool have kind of come close before

and it's kind of slipped through our

fingers and all that

i've been waiting my whole liverpool

support in life to sit here and say that

the pool are going to win the league and

we're finally going to do it

[Music]

next please home baked

in the shadows of liverpool's anfield

stadium

is a cooperative cafe it's owned by the

community

and is the embodiment of what it means

to come from this city

and your pie mashing gravy will come

down the steps in a minute

kathy alderson retired nurse and

lifelong liverpool fan

volunteers behind the counter on match

days

we know when they've scored as well

because you can hear the roar it's

brilliant to be

so close to the ground and here's your

clock

there are actually two teams in

liverpool the other

being everton who play in blue hunger

wears no club colours is the motto

you don't have to be a red to be here

we've got several blues behind me you

you know but we

we all believe in local people and

keeping the money local if we possibly

can reinvest in our own society

that mildred one of our volunteers our

eldest volunteer

mildred do you support liverpool or

everton oh everton oh

sorry i asked now

[Laughter]

no no

on match days outside the stadium

there's a food bank project

which also harnesses fan power

as a lifelong liverpool supporter joe

blott's mission

is about more than just being a fan

and while there's some great glories on

the pitch here some really hard times

being part of a football club is also

being part of a community

and why we do this why we do fun

supporting food banks

you know football fans can be a really

powerful force for good

that's the community spirit that we

really believe in

tonight a champions league match against

atletico madrid

could go either way but we've got the

12th man haven't we we've got the crowd

behind them

and i think the cop sometimes just sucks

that ball into the goal when we're

kicking up our end so

let's hope

unfortunately for liverpool despite

dictating the match

they lose and are knocked out of europe

[Music]

the result is a setback but for the fans

the holy grail this season lies

elsewhere

[Applause]

that's our sort of motto believe believe

and we were picked at the post a couple

of times recently and to get it this

season fingers crossed nothing happens

we'll be absolutely mega because i'm old

enough to remember when we did win the

league 18 times

one of the many stars from that

title-winning team

was a young dane who was quickly adopted

by the fans

i look older than three on that picture

i don't remember any of it

unfortunately his home is a shrine to

the glory days he enjoyed at anfield

this one here is meant to be my last

liverpool shirt ever

in 1995 he played against coventry city

we lost three two

uh i scored so but that's meant to be

that one

we have another cup final here 1989

which is against everton

the fans come up to you and tell you i

love the 1986 f5 cup and i love the goal

against matches

but as well as the footballing highs and

lows yan

remembers the culture shock of first

arriving from denmark

i think it's fair to say that the city

in many ways was on his knees

what was keeping the city going was the

spirit of the people

and of course the liverpool football

club they sort of pretty quickly

let you know that i'm not actually doing

them a favor by joining them they are

doing a favor by allowing me to play

liverpool football club

and i think that goes all the way back

to bill shankly

when he announced that the football club

belongs

to the fans and we play for the fans

since i come here to liverpool

and to anfield

[Music]

i've drummed it into our players

time and again that they are privileged

to play for you

[Music]

and if they didn't believe me

they believe me now

[Applause]

bill shankly ran the team for 15 years

from 1959 to 1974

dragging the club from the second

division to the very top

of english football

oh bill shankly was our greatest manager

ever

everybody loves shankly he instilled in

them before they went out onto the pitch

to say

you're playing for them you're not

playing for you and it's kind of a

socialist approach in terms of the way

he believed

that working together you got the best

outcome

this is his ode to socialism shanklies

toshacks keegan's fa cups and league

titles

the european cups to follow all built on

a collective ethos of

hard work and sacrifice his ideology was

um

everybody gets a share of everything you

know everybody together

i mean he really got liverpool as well

[Music]

liverpool in the 1960s felt like the

center of the air in many ways you know

you've got the music scene

both football teams were doing well you

know there's a lot going on

simon hughes is a sports journalist and

he's also written about the history and

politics of the city

you shifted forward 20 years into the

1980s and

the city's status as a major port it

declines

rapidly in that period

you've got to go back and understand the

history of the city it was the second

biggest port in the british empire

the city was built on you know slavery

and trade basically you know that was

the

that was the starting point of the

city's wealth but the city's wealth was

built at the expense of huge

suffering a lot of the people working

class people who worked on the docks

were

irish immigrants who grew up with a

certain level of resentment for

the british governments i'd say

anti-establishments

the city's decline began after the

second world war

as the british empire shrank

every day people would go to the docks

and not know whether they were going to

be working

the culture of casualization had a

massive impact on the way people

sort of felt you know they didn't have

the standard framework which all the

people in other parts of the country did

have

the docks was split in two like anywhere

else in the city

half liverpool half emerson

fervent liverpool fan and former trade

union activist tony nelson

spent almost three decades working on

the docks

it wasn't unusual for men to go to watch

everton one week in liverpool the other

and i think there was more comradeship

between the two

anyone who says politics should be left

after football you know doesn't know

about football there's no about politics

in this city it's not going to happen

in the early 1980s the conservative

government saw

socialism in liverpool as a cancer that

must be surgically removed

before it could spread

for the first time in british history

politicians would try to bring a city

and its population to their knees

what liverpool needed was investments

and help and instead what it got was

margaret thatcher

to those waiting with baited breath for

that favorite media catchphrase the

u-turn

the ladies not for turning she just had

it

in for liverpool

we know now that she told hesseltine to

manage the decline of the city

just let us fade away but i think she

picked on the wrong city didn't she

we're pretty much a socialist city you

know we stand shoulder to shoulder

look after each other margaret thatcher

didn't uh

nobody was that keen on her here the

1980s was the defending decades in

liverpool's history as a city

mass unemployment bigger than anywhere

else in the country

while the city struggled liverpool

football club rose like a phoenix from

the ashes

a seemingly invincible team but it too

would suffer a body blow

the game was just six minutes old when a

policeman drew the referee's attention

to what was happening at the leoping's

lane end of the ground

i'd just come home from where somebody

rang me up and said you'd turn the tv on

one report says a gate was picked in

another has claimed it was opened by

staff at the ground

on the 15th of april 1989 in an fa cup

semi-final at the neutral ground

liverpool fans were caught

in europe's worst sporting catastrophe

hillsborough

and at the time i was a night sister on

accident an emergency down at the royal

about ten o'clock that night the walking

wounded would manage to get themselves

back from sheffield

there was considerable confusion and

much frightened

anger the look in their eyes of having

seen something

terrible which obviously they had done

and they were shocked

and they were upset and they were saying

it wasn't us we were we weren't pushing

anybody the police wouldn't let us out

so we knew from the start how bad it was

in reality the police gave orders to

open an extra gate

allowing fans to flood into an already

crowded stand

in the resulting crush 96 people were

killed

people that appeal understood almost

immediately

they were getting set up by the

establishment

the media the police and politicians

in the weeks that followed the same

government whose policy

was the managed decline of liverpool

secretly asked the police to feed

britain's best-selling newspaper

the sun with false information

people were blaming the fans and saying

they pushed the gate down

and they were crushing their own people

and people believe what they read in the

paper and we didn't feel at all

supported at the time

the whole city just came together

whether that was about grief or whether

that was about

challenging the authorities and

challenging the terrible things that

have gone on in the court and

the lack of public support through

government

in april 2016 after a 27-year fight for

justice

an inquest finally ruled that the

supporters were unlawfully killed

due to grossly negligent failures by

police

i believe all what was going on in the

80s

manifested itself in the cover-up of

hillsman because

they believed football supporters in

general and the people of liverpool

they deserved what they got

[Applause]

even now more than three decades later

no one has been punished for the events

of that day

hills was the basis for the

politicization

of a lot of younger people in liverpool

now a lot of people

say politics football don't mix i've

never subscribed to that and

very few people in liverpool do partly

because of hillsborough you know you

can't

separate that event from politics

i think that feeds in into you know into

anfield on a matchday

in liverpool politics even plays its

part

on the football pitch itself

after scoring in a european match in

1997

star striker robbie fowler pulled up his

top

to reveal a message of support for

striking dockers

i'm proud of the fact that he did that

i'm also proud of the fact that

he was supporting liverpool dockers it

was important to him as

important to us that he was shown a

solid dynasty but the fact that

that he was one of the biggest names in

in the premier league at the time any

any scouts roots isn't it

people would turn up outside anfield and

i'll go where

hey jan uh do me a favor on thursday

the kids football team presentation and

it wasn't

can you do it it was you know and that

was what was

required of you and it's exactly the

same when you have these disputes

so the dog a dispute somebody would

showing up at anfield or at melwood

and they go hey yeah it's a t-shirt wear

that for the lads

yeah it's not i said can you do as a

favor or whatever it's not listen

because it's

but this is what we do isn't it and you

would never shy away from them

managed political decline and industrial

decay

left liverpool alienated from the rest

of the country

in august 2019 that mood

found a voice at wembley the home of

english football

you know the start of the season he had

the boon of the national anthem

and you know there's outrage amongst the

rest of the country and i was like this

is this has been coming for years this

[Music]

i think our scousers we're a bit special

you know we're not going to have it we

stand together

we're in our english we're scouts so

we've got more in common

with dublin and glasgow and newcastle

than we have with london so

liverpool fans have always been defiant

when two american venture capitalists

who owned the club

mismanaged the finances fans rose up

against them

[Music]

all the things that shankly built up was

being dismantled by

corporate greed

the fans won their battle in the high

court

effectively running the owners out of

town

[Applause]

they'd saved the club for the next

generation like teddy

joe's six-year-old grandson

but each generation of scousers has to

make a choice

between the red and the blue

the great thing about this city is

despite the rivalries

um you know whole families are split

down the middle reds and blues

so it's not unusual to have a mix of

liverpool and everton fans and

we do have the friendliest derby because

it is a family issue

the first game i had to enjoy was never

sing game because of my own covers

an everton fan but luckily

my dad made me see sense everything

about this city is coloured by football

the council even chose purple for their

bins

combining the red and the blue

the football is is part of the beating

house of liverpool

[Music]

darby day liverpool versus everton

the city is divided it's the biggest

game

from a liverpool fan i don't like the

derby i always worry

you know that i want them to win so

badly that i can't enjoy it

with nine games to go liverpool need

just six points and their 30-year title

weight will be over

surely nothing can stop them this time

but in early 2020 the world turned red

and for all the wrong reasons the whole

world

needs to take action

you must stay at home

the coronavirus threw everything into

question

christian just a final question do you

think that the premier league season is

going to be finished we have no idea

let's hope so

and with it liverpool's title charge

there was even talk of cancelling the

season altogether

weeks became months but on the 17th of

june the premiership was back on

and so was the derby

[Music]

i've got lots of family and friends over

everton fans so do i really want to rub

it in

sort of covering the match

will be the anfield wrap a hugely

popular podcast for liverpool fans

all around the world lizzie doyle

one of the producers is a die hard fan

herself

derby day is my favorite fiction of the

whole year but it's also my most hated

fiction of the whole year because

the nerves and like the source of

anticipation and like the almost anger

that you get on darby day is unlike any

other

it's very much a pride thing in

liverpool and on the whole we usually

think

that live people are gonna win and we

just sort of predict how we think

they're gonna win

this will be a weird one because it's

under lockdown there's no fans

and it matters very very much to us this

time because if we get a win here with

that little step closer to

getting the lead so it will be a sticky

one to watch

just watching the merseyside derby

liverpool versus everton

always a nerve-wracking experience i

can't stand this but even more so

tonight with so much at stake for

liverpool

then nil nil oh dear no real chances to

talk about

everton hit the post it was a mad game

it was a very typical derby

bloody goddesson

probably still need two wins to secure

the premier league crowd

they've come agonizingly close in recent

years

only to fall at the last hurdle

you know there's been me and mrs 2014

being the worst of that you know

seeing gerard slipping over you know

that was just the heartbreaking moment

i'm 98 sure that they'll get it

it's been a long time coming i can

remember the days when we won the league

and the joy of all that

i wanted for the generations of

liverpool fans who who've

firsted for this and and seen just how

good we were in in the 80s

for me there's absolutely no doubt in my

mind that liverpool will be champions

this year and i can't believe i'm

sitting here saying it

around the city the excitement is

building

last night liverpool beat crystal palace

if manchester city failed to beat

chelsea tonight

liverpool's 30-year wait will finally be

over

liverpool uses slogan saying this means

more and when you watch liverpool lift

our premier league trophy you will see

why this means more to this football

club

the sort of unity that we have between

each other

i think because liverpool has always

been the outsider we've always been

outcasts to the rest of england that

we've sort of like stuck together

through the thick and thin

i've been waiting for so long and i

can't believe it's actually here

come on come on come on yeah

[Music]

i feel absolutely amazing i can't

believe it's actually happening

we've done it 30 years we've done it

brilliant for more than a generation

this city has experienced ties lows

and mere misses on the pitch as well as

political battles

and tragedies of it it's been a long

time coming both it finally came

now they can paint the town red the

people of liverpool

have hope in their hearts

[Music]

this one song written by rogers and

hammerstein

has carried the spirit of liverpool

through triumph

and disaster

[Music]

well you never walk alone my favorite

song anyway it's a song that's been sung

over the years by

civil rights campaigners i always get

choked to a degree when you sing about

hope

we all need hope in our life to get

through the tragedies to get through the

daily grind of being in one of the most

poverty-stricken areas

in the country it's our anthem you know

and the words mean a lot

[Applause]

[Music]

it's become a massive part of it

four minutes before the game for

everybody to give it everything they got

and that makes us feel as though that we

are that 12th man

[Applause]

[Music]

the day liverpool were confirmed

champions

their points tally was 96.

the same number as those who died at

hillsborough