ABSTRACT
It has been established that the split of Everton FC in 1892 involved a clash between factional forces with different visions concerning the correct model of football club governance. After the split, the creation of two limited companies, Everton Football Club Company Limited and Liverpool Football Club and Athletic Grounds Company Limited, allowed each faction the freedom to manoeuvre – to pursue their preferred strategy of organizational growth without restraint. This was to be reflected in the dramatically different patterns of ownership and control at Everton and Liverpool football clubs. We also witnessed elsewhere in this volume that the intensity of the split was in no short measure a product of the different social and political profile of many of the protagonists involved in the factional dispute in the old club. Again, the two new football club companies reflected these differences. Everton and Liverpool differed markedly in their early period as limited companies in terms of the type of men who secured control over each organization. The key objective of this paper will be to highlight the most significant differences between the two football organizations in their early development.
