South Liverpool F.C. was a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club from

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The club's colours were white shirts, black shorts and red socks. The club relocated and became

New Brighton A.F.C. New Brighton Association Football Club is the name of two Association football, football clubs from the seaside resort of New Brighton, Merseyside, New Brighton, in Wallasey, Merseyside in England. The original club founded in 1921 were members ...

in 1921. In 1935 a phoenix club was established South Liverpool F.C. (1935).

History

Formation and playing years

It has long been accepted that the first South Liverpool F.C. was founded in the late-1890s when a club called African Royal (or, in some sources, Africa Royal) changed its name, under the influence of W.J. Sawyer, and relocated to Dingle, just south of the city centre. The team played in

The Combination The Combination was a league during the early days of English football. It had two incarnations; the first ran only for the 1888–89 season for teams across Northern England and the Midlands, and was disbanded before completion. The second ...

and the Lancashire League before joining the Second Division of the

Lancashire Combination The Lancashire Combination was a football league founded in the North West of England in 1891–92. It absorbed the Lancashire League in 1903. In 1968 the Combination lost five of its clubs to the newly formed Northern Premier League. In 1982 i ...

in 1911. The club was promoted to the First Division in 1913, but the competition was suspended during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. By 1914, William James Sawyer was Secretary and managing director of a new company called South Liverpool Football & Athletic Club, with the team playing at Dingle Park in the Lancashire Combination Division 1 against the likes of

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club are a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ...

, Barrow, and

Accrington Stanley Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England, that compete in the , the fourth level of the English football league system. They have spent their entire history playing a ...

. Sawyer became Hon. Secretary of Everton in 1918 and remained on the club's board of directors for a decade. Latterly he was Secretary-Manager of New Brighton in the 1930s, while he also offered consultancy to Wigan Borough FC on its formation in 1920.

Relocation

After the first world war, South Liverpool played for two more seasons; having lost access to the Dingle in 1920, it played at the Green Lane Tramway ground, but it was not success, so the club moved

Wallasey Wallasey () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is at the mouth of the River Mersey, on the north-eastern corner of the Wirral Peninsula. It lies within the Historic counties of England, historic county bou ...

in 1921 and changed its name to New Brighton. There was a debate within the Lancashire Association as to whether New Brighton was a continuation or a new club, given that South Liverpool's directors had basically issued a large number of new shares for the New Brighton backers to buy, and, as a matter of expediency, New Brighton was allowed South Liverpool's official Lancashire FA registration. It also took on most of South Liverpool's staff, all of South Liverpool's debts (£200, reportedly), and South Liverpool's place in the Lancashire Combination for 1921–22. Therefore, New Brighton FC was a legal continuation of South Liverpool FC. The club was one and the same, although many sources claim, erroneously, that South Liverpool FC folded up in 1921 and that New Brighton FC was formed in 1921. (The connection between South Liverpool and New Brighton is similar to that of Wimbledon and Milton Keynes Dons). In 1923, New Brighton secured election to the Football League Division Three (North). The club lost its League status in 1951 and folded in 1983.

Phoenix club

A phoenix club was set up in 1935 bearing the

same name ''Same Name'' is an American reality television series in which an average person swaps lives with a celebrity of the same first and last name. It premiered on July 24, 2011 on CBS. The series received low ratings, and CBS pulled it after four-ep ...

References

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External links

Official site
* * {{coord, 53, 22, 04.12, N, 2, 56, 19.71, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Defunct football clubs in England Defunct football clubs in Merseyside The Combination Lancashire League (football) Lancashire Combination 1890s establishments in England Association football clubs established in 1897 Association football clubs disestablished in 1921