Writing about sports is definitely a journey. Through mine, I told myself that I would write about anything if it meant improving my craft and getting an opportunity advance in the industry. So far, it’s meant writing about the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer, the National Women’s Soccer League, Olympic basketball, Olympic 3×3 basketball, Olympic Rugby, Rugby, the WNBA, college basketball, college hockey and a specific focus on soccer and mental health. If there’s a sport or team out there, I’ll put thoughts to virtual paper and publish it for the internet to read. Except one team is off limits. I cannot write about Liverpool Football Club. Especially Liverpool Women.
Liverpool is a team based out of Liverpool, England. They were founded over 125 years ago, although I’ve only been part of their history for eight. I’m not a proper Brit and I didn’t inherit my love for the team. I picked them the way any other American would choose their team: LeBron James.
When James returned to Cleveland, after a stint with the Miami Heat, my Northeast Ohio heart filled with joy. It also happened to be the same year I got serious about watching soccer and James is part of Fenway Sports Group, the owners of Liverpool. As American as a reason someone gets for picking a team.
As a parent of a few young children, the Premier League was fantastic because the matches were early on Saturday mornings, a time when familial responsibility didn’t stretch further than keeping my kids fed, entertained and happy. Liverpool was the team for us.
Headed in Different Directions
I can’t write about Liverpool for many reasons. Mostly because it’s how I can let loose. I can have a healthy disconnect between the world of writing about sports and also being a sports fan. Until right now.
The Liverpool women’s and men’s teams have taken vastly different journeys in the past few years. A perfect parallel is June of 2020. At the time, Liverpool men were on their way to a historic Premier League championship. A victory that cemented their legacy as the fastest a team has ever secured the trophy.
In the same month, Liverpool women were relegated from the Women’s Super League. Also known as the top tier in England. Liverpool was placed in the Women’s Championship; the second tier. That’s what happens in places outside of America; teams are punished for poor performances.
There’s an argument to be made that relegation was unjust. After all, Liverpool had six matches remaining and were down just a point. Dwelling on what could have been does nothing for what happened. The two-time champions of the top tier said goodbye; relocated to their new home in tier two.
Coping With Loss
There are a lot of reasons for the fall for Liverpool women. Reasons that I won’t share in this article. Especially when a better writer like Liverpool Offside Jordan Keeble has already outlined the troubles of playing a distant second fiddle to the people in power.
It’s those reasons outlining eloquently by Keeble, and the excitement of seeing the Liverpool men win trophies, that grates me. The angst has taken many forms. There’s the internet whining phase, which doesn’t do much. Next, I wanted to take action. That action in the form of a strongly worded letter the leaders of the club, through signatures from Official Liverpool Supporters’ Clubs, which I was part of and used to head their Columbus, Ohio chapter.
That letter got one of three responses.
The first, silence. I scoured every website, social media account and contacts I knew from the club to reach out and most of the time there was no response. The second, positive responses, which didn’t scratch double-digits. Finally, the negative responses. Some came politely with a “no thank you,” while one response chastised the idea of telling the club how to spend their money and allocated resources. That tune changed mysteriously in April 2021 when Liverpool joined the now defunct Super League with other huge names across Europe.
Hindsight is 20/20, as the saying goes. The hard work of putting together the letter and sending it to the big wigs would likely return with a polite thank you with concerns acknowledged. Not necessarily moving mountains.
The final, and current stage, is copious support for the players and coaches. It’s the stage that I probably should have stuck with in the first place. It manifests itself in talking to people about the team, posting when matches are airing, and where, and one outward sign for the players themselves.
Artistic Endeavor
Like most people, I wouldn’t consider myself an artist or a creative type. With that self-confidence in mind, I set out in early 2021 to learn about making tifos, or banners. The whole story is here, connected to the local MLS team in Columbus. Something that I didn’t realize was the addictive nature of completing a project. In the summer of 2021, a banner for Liverpool Women became my next artistic focus.
To make an already long story slightly shorter, the banner took months to complete and get into the hands of Jo Goodall, the founder and chair of the Liverpool Women Supporters Club. Also, an all around great human.
It was supported through contributions from myself and a few members of the Columbus Liverpool chapter. My eternally patient pal Pete Gillette spent a couple hours in my garage to help apply all the red paint too. One of us spilled some paint on it, giving it what Gillette calls the “Jackson Pollock look,” and then a kind couple that traveled overseas took it to Goodall, saving time and money on shipping.
Sunday, it made its beautiful debut. It wasn’t beautiful because of the match conditions, since the match almost didn’t happen due to a water-logged pitch (or field in American sports terms) in Blackburn. The banner’s official debut was beautiful because it accompanied a 6-0 Liverpool victory. It’s Liverpool’s first victory and it puts them five points ahead in first place, with nine matches to go.
Growing Support
Supporting the team also paid dividends locally. The Columbus supporters’ group did something unprecedented. They had a dual watch party for the men and women, who both had the same kickoff. That small gesture led to countless safe, and socially distanced, conversations surrounding the women’s team. Liverpool supporters that hadn’t put much thought into the women’s side learned more than they bargained for, and hopefully came away with a stronger connection to the entirety of Liverpool Football Club.
Last thing, I’m not saying that the banner was part of the reason for Liverpool’s most lopsided victory of the campaign, but I’m not not saying it either.
Joking aside, the real reason is that it seems like downfall of Liverpool Women has attracted attention. Leadership responded by hiring former manager Matt Beard to right the ship. His addition, plus signings of names like Ceri Holland, Leanne Kiernan and most recently American, and NWSL veteran, Katie Stengel is huge. They join a team of already established Liverpool stars like Niamh Fahey, Rachel Furness and Missy Bo Kearns, to name a few.
Promotion to the Women’s Super League isn’t guaranteed, even with a strong lead and single-digit matches remaining. Regardless of the outcome, I’ll be there to support. I just can’t write about them.
Follow Beyond Women’s Sports for more from the world of soccer. Thomas Costello is also on Twitter. Follow him @1ThomasCostello.
