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Spirit Of Shankly (SOS) is an unofficial supporters union for fans of Liverpool F.C.. Named after former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, although the union was formed in early 2008 by disgruntled fans opposed to the former Liverpool F.C. ownership of Tom Hicks and George N. Gillett, Jr., it quickly developed into a cooperative 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 LFC in the long term.
Contents
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.
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 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
Short Term Aims
Medium Term Aims
Long Term Aim
Ultimate Aim
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. 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 Anywhere
A "Tom And George - Not Welcome Anywhere" Campaign 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 to Spanish Paper Marca (newspaper) 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 and Howard Gayle; Comedians John Bishop (comedian) and Neil Fitzmaurice; Members of Parliament Steve Rotheram and Alison McGovern; General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union Billy Hayes (trade unionist); Karen Gill, the granddaughter of Bill Shankly; and music by John Power, Pete Wylie, Ian McNabb, Peter Hooton, 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.
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".
Representation
Spirit Of Shankly is a democratically elected organisation with the committee all being volunteers. Committee Elections are held annually at the AGM in February and there are quarterly EGMs held to update members on SOS activities and information regarding Liverpool F.C.. These meetings are held in Liverpool usually on a day of a match and are filmed and uploaded online shortly after to allow members from outside Liverpool to watch what was discussed at the meeting and if necessary vote online on any resolutions discussed at the meeting.
Branches
A change in the constitution as voted for by members at the AGM in February 2010 allowed the formation of Spirit Of Shankly Branches. This allows members from all over the world to form a branch where they live to enable them to help expand the work of SOS to help even more members and to allow greater involvement from those unable to attend meetings in Liverpool regularly. Currently there are branches in Northern Ireland, Sweden, Norway, London and an online branch Scouser Tommy. Many more are getting worked on as well.
Media
On 18 June 2010, the Daily Mirror published an article urging fans to join Spirit Of Shankly in their fight against Hicks and Gillett. The increasing media exposure, not only from the Mirror but from the BBC and the Liverpool Echo, has seen the union increase its number of members as well as being contacted by Sky Sports News reporters on several big stories related to Liverpool F.C., such as the sacking of manager Rafael Benítez and the appointment of Roy Hodgson.
On 22 May 2012 the Daily Mirror published an article claiming that SoS is behind a campaign to have Rafael Benitez re-installed as manager after the sacking of Kenny Dalglish, Spirit of Shankly have denied any contact with either the Daily Mirror or Rafa Benitez regarding the job.
Awards
On 20 March 2014, SoS was named Cooperative Of The Year by the regional social enterprise organization, Social Enterprise North West.