“You’ll Never Walk Alone”, is the name of a 1963 hit song, by Rodgers and Hammerstein,popularized by the sixties British band, Gerry and the Pacemakers, founded by Gerry Marsden from Liverpool. It is also the anthem for the Liverpool Football Club in the English Premiership. The Pacemakers are most fondly remembered for hit songs like “Ferry Cross the Mersey”, and “Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying.”
Walking alone is probably the prevalent feeling in Liverpool these days, as the outlook for the future of the team, is quite bleak at the moment. For several years, there has been a fear of financial peril for the club, because of the financial woes of Dallas,Texas based owner, Tom Hicks ( the team is partly (50%) owned by Hicks and former Montreal Canadiens owner George Gillett,Jr., and the two allegedly don’t get along, according to Wikipedia). Hicks had previously owned the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball, and is the current owner of the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League. There is now a great concern that the team could be in big trouble monetarily, if Hicks is able to maintain financial control of the Reds. According to ESPN soccer correspondent, Harry Harris, a source has told him: ‘ If Hicks gets his way, it would be a catastrophe for Liverpool. Besides more debt, higher interest payments and no stadium, it won’t be a question of selling players but whether the players will want to go………The players were told by the board in the summer that there would be new owners and a new stadium and that they would not be sold. If the top players can see what is happening , and if it happens, they will want to go, rather than the club wanting to sell them.’
One of the ultimate fears for fans of the Reds, is that their few star players, like Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard, would leave Liverpool. It is quite clear that the prognosis, if Hicks maintains his ownership of the storied soccer squad, is one that would have been thought of as unimaginable, for one of the most successful and popular sports teams in the world. ‘ Up to last week when Hicks turned up with his plan, the worst case scenario was that Liverpool would end up in mid-table without Champions League football again, but in no danger of going down, and would struggle along until the Americans went, sooner or later, and new owners would come along and rescue the club.’
The Reds have won a joint-record ( with Manchester United ) 18 league titles, , seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups. The Anfield based club is also the most successful English club in European competition, having won five European Cups and three UEFA Cups.
Tragedy has also been part of Liverpool’s history, with the 1985 Heysel Stadium Disaster, which took the lives of 39 fans, most of whom were Italian, after Liverpool fans charged towards Juventus supporters, and caused a retaining wall to collapse. As detailed by Wikipedia, Liverpool received a ten-year ban from participating in European competition, which was later reduced to six years, and English clubs were also banned from European competition for five years. Fourteen Liverpool fans received convictions for involuntary manslaughter.
Yet another horror was part of the Reds story, when hundreds of Liverpool fans were crushed against perimeter fencing in an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest on April 15 1989. A total of 96 fans perished as a result, in what was known as the Hillsborough Disaster. The resultant government investigation and Taylor Report, led to legislation which required top division teams to have stadiums with seats only.
With this sad and deadly element attached to Liverpool Football history, one can only imagine the awful feeling that must exist in the heart of their longtime and extremely loyal fans. The possibility of financial failure and a worst case scenario relegation, was probably the last thing any Reds supporter ever imagined as a reality, for this former Premiership powerhouse.