ABSTRACT
To understand the extreme circumstances that brought about the split of the newly crowned English League title holders, it is important to recognize how events outside the club framed the dispute and intensified matters internally to breaking point. The club dispute occurred during a period when a bitter battle raged for political control of the north end of Liverpool. The early 1890s was a period of upheaval in municipal affairs marked by robust Liberal and Tory clashes over matters more national than local in character – clashes that were, incidentally, played out in the local press between key figures of the Everton membership, more especially over the issue of temperance. The suspicion that temperance concerns among the Everton club membership had an impact on the club dispute is long-standing but has never been substantially explained. In this chapter flesh is placed on the bare bones of that belief. But the problems Houlding was experiencing inside and outside the club were not confined to temperance affairs.
