Spirit Of Shankly (SOS) is the official supporters' union and leader of the supporters board for fans of

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has p ...

Named after former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, the union was formed in early 2008 by disgruntled fans opposed to the former Liverpool F.C. ownership of

Tom Hicks Thomas Ollis Hicks Sr. (born February 7, 1946), is an American private equity investor and sports team owner living in Dallas, Texas. ''Forbes'' magazine estimated Hicks' wealth at $1 billion in 2009, but it dropped to $700 million in 2010 ...

and George N. Gillett, Jr., quickly developing into a

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

representing its members (and by implication other Liverpool F.C. supporters) on a whole range of issues such as ticketing, travel and community and regeneration issues. Its ultimate aim is to seek fan ownership of the club in the long term.

Background

In 2007 Liverpool were purchased by Tom Hicks and George Gillett, American businessmen, via a leveraged takeover from previous owner David Moores. The initial purchase was met with mixed reactions, with little immediate protest following increased on-pitch success and high quality purchases such as

Fernando Torres Fernando José Torres Sanz (; born 20 March 1984) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a striker. He is the current manager of Atlético Madrid Juvenil A. Due to his consistent goalscoring rate as a young player, ...

. However, from the 2008 season and amid mounting debts, waning on-pitch form and conflicts with manager Rafa Benitez, as well as a perceived reduction in transfer spending the popularity of the ownership of Hicks and Gillett began to fall. In January 2008 during the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

game against Havant and Waterlooville when Liverpool were trailing 2-1 certain sections of the Kop Grandstand started singing 'Liverpool Football Club is in the wrong hands' it was met by a very loud disapproval and boos from the majority of the Kop. As a result, a meeting was called in The Sandon, a pub in Liverpool, to discuss what fans could do about the situation, those in favour of protest formed the Spirit Of Shankly group. On Tuesday 12 October 2010 Spirit of Shankly organised a bus to the High Court in London for 4am on Wednesday 13th 2010 for Justice Christopher Lloyd's verdict regarding the court between Royal Bank of Scotland Versus Tom Hicks and others.

Aims

Spirit Of Shankly - Liverpool Supporters' Union after formation set out aims as part of their constitution highlighting short, medium and long-term objectives for the organisation. These are as follows: Constant Aims * To represent the best interests of our members and by extension the best interests of the supporters of Liverpool Football Club on both the local and international level. * To hold whoever owns the football club to account. Short Term Aims * To institute a functioning structure for the Spirit Of Shankly. * To create long lasting relationships with all aspects of Liverpool F.C.'s supporting community. * To improve the quality of service for Liverpool F.C.'s supporters. * To improve the standard and value of travel arrangements for Liverpool F.C.'s supporters. Medium Term Aims * To work with any relevant agencies to improve the area of Anfield. * To build links with grassroots supporter groups both home and abroad. Long Term Aim * To bring about supporter representation at board room level. Ultimate Aim * Supporter ownership of Liverpool Football Club.

Protests

The union organised their first official protest against Hicks and Gillett on 22 February 2008. After learning that Tom Hicks Jr. was planning to attend the game, the members remained in the stadium singing anti-owner songs after the end of the match. In addition to this, many in the group began to display banners and sing in opposition to the ownership. They were dubbed by Liverpool Managing Director Christian Purslow as 'Sons of Strikers'. February 2010 saw the launch of a billboard campaign across

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wi ...

. The billboards had the message "Tom & George: Not Welcome Here" displayed, in reference to Tom Hicks and George N. Gillett, Jr., as well directing fans to join Spirit Of Shankly.
Tom & George: Not Welcome Here billboard campaign.

Tom & George - Not Welcome Anywhere

A "Tom And George - Not Welcome Anywhere" Campaign
Tom and George - Not Welcome Anywhere was started on 29 June 2010 to show the depth of feeling from Spirit Of Shankly members and Liverpool supporters all around the world. This saw pictures come in Anfield to Australia, Belfast to Bangkok. The pictures were reported in various media outlets from locally in the

Liverpool Echo The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales – a subsidiary company of Reach plc and is based in St Paul's Square, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is published Monday to Sunday, and is Liver ...

to Spanish newspaper '' Marca'' and to Tom Hicks' home town of Dallas

Spirit Of Shankly 4 July Independence Day Rally

A large number of Liverpool fans attended a SOS organised rally on St. George's Hall Plateau in Liverpool city centre, held on the American Independence Day, 4 July 2010. The union declared this the day that Liverpool fans declare their independence from their American owners. They outlined how they are planning to launch a credit union partnership where supporters can buy the club. The day included speeches in support of Spirit Of Shankly and their aims by ex-Liverpool players

John Aldridge John William Aldridge (born 18 September 1958) is a former football player and manager. He was a prolific, record-breaking striker best known for his time with English club Liverpool in the late 1980s. His tally of 330 Football League goals is ...

and Howard Gayle; Comedians

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and

Neil Fitzmaurice Neil Simon Fitzmaurice (born 20 August 1969) is an English actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known for his role as Jeff, the love rival of protagonist Mark Corrigan, in the Channel 4 sitcom ''Peep Show''. He has written for a number of ot ...

; Members of Parliament

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and

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; General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union

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; Karen Gill, the granddaughter of Bill Shankly; and music by John Power,

Pete Wylie Peter James Wylie (born 22 March 1958) is an English singer/songwriter and guitarist, best known as the leader of the band variously known as Wah!, Wah! Heat, Shambeko! Say Wah!, JF Wah!, The Mighty Wah! and Wah! The Mongrel. Career Early b ...

Ian McNabb Robert Ian McNabb (born 3 November 1960) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Previously the frontman of The Icicle Works, McNabb has since embarked on a solo career and performed with Ringo Starr, Neil Young/Crazy Horse, Mike Scott ...

Peter Hooton Peter Hooton (born 28 September 1962) is the vocalist of Liverpool-based group the Farm. He was also its sole founder member in 1983, overseeing its rise to prominence with two top 10 singles in 1990, its breakup in 1996 and reformation in 2004 ...

, John O'Connell and Sons of Anfield.

Tom Hicks Jr.

In January 2010 Liverpool director Tom Hicks Jr, son of owner Tom Hicks, became embroiled in an email row with a member of Spirit Of Shankly, in which he called the fan an ''idiot'', before responding with a further reply which said: ''Blow me fuck face. Go to hell, I'm sick of you.''. The precise circumstances of the exchanges between the two remain unknown; however, release of the emails was a publicity blow for the ownership. A spokesperson for SoS stated, "For one of the directors of the club, and the son of one of the owners, to respond to a fan with genuine concerns in such a manner is unacceptable. Tom Hicks Jr should resign, as his position as a director is now untenable.". The club released a statement confirming his resignation soon after.
Eurosport on the resignation of Tom Hicks Jr.

Supporter ownership

On 23 July 2010, SoS and another fan organisation, ShareLiverpoolFC, announced that they would be joining forces to pursue their common goal of fan ownership of the club. ShareLiverpoolFC is to be rebranded as Spirit Of Shankly – ShareLiverpoolFC (SOS-SL), although it remains a legally separate organisation to Spirit of Shankly. ShareLiverpoolFC decided to informally retire from its campaigning after the sale of the club to NESV leaving the Spirit of Shankly as the only organised supporters' group campaigning for supporter investment and ownership.

New ownership

It was unclear what impact the takeover by NESV in October 2010 would have on the future of the group. SoS released a statement claiming it was their actions which had forced Hicks and Gillett out. On 18 October 2010 the board of Spirit of Shankly met the new owners of Liverpool F.C. for an informal discussion regarding their organisation and their actions regarding the previous regime. At that meeting new Liverpool owner John Henry said to the members of the group present "You guys need to know that without the action and hard work of the Spirit of Shankly, Tom (Werner) and I would not have bought the Club".

Media

On 18 June 2010, the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...

'' published an article urging fans to join Spirit Of Shankly in their fight against Hicks and Gillett.
Daily Mirror article. The increasing media exposure, not only from the Mirror but from the

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