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Anfield
UEFA View from Anfield Road Stand
Full name	Anfield
Location	Liverpool, England
Built	1884
Opened	September 1884
Owner	Liverpool F.C.
Surface	Grass
Construction cost	£555,099
Tenants
Liverpool FC
Capacity
45,362
Dimensions
111 x 74 Yards

Anfield is a football stadium in the district of Anfield, in Liverpool, England. A UEFA 4-star rated stadium, it is the home of Liverpool F.C. It is famous for its atmosphere and noise.

The stadium is well known for the Kop stand on the south-west side of the ground, and the atmosphere fans can create at games.

The American owners plan to replace Anfield with a new Stanley Park Stadium, and construction is set to begin in spring 2008. It will hold an extra 14,000 fans and will be open in 2011.^[1]

Contents 1 Stadium features 2 Stands 3 Difficulties of expanding 4 Attendance 4.1 Records 4.2 Average attendances (Premier League) 5 International matches 6 References 7 External links

The stadium features tributes to two of the most successful managers, with the Paisley Gates, named for Bob Paisley, who guided Liverpool to three European Cups and six League Championships in the 1970s and 80s, and Shankly Gates, named for Bill Shankly, Paisley's predecessor between 1959 and 1974.^[2] Shankly Gates features the lettering "You'll Never Walk Alone", from the Gerry & the Pacemakers hit that has become the club's anthem.^[3]

Inside the gates is another tribute to Bill Shankly, a statue outside the club shop, and inside the players tunnel remains a plaque Shankly had installed reading "This is Anfield", which he placed to "remind our lads who they're playing for -- and to remind the opposition who they're playing against."^[4] Another feature was The Boot Room.[1][2]

Home and away fans leave their scarfs at The Hillsborough Memorial, which pays tribute to the 96 fans who died in the Hillsborough disaster.^[2]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2007)

Liverpool proceeded quickly to develop Anfield. The first stage was the provision of a significant Main Stand, completed in 1895 with a highly distinctive half-timbered gable that proved a landmark in English football until its demolition in the early 1970s to make way for the current Main Stand.

The Kop was originally called Walton Breck Bank and before that Oakfield Road Embankment [3] The term "Kop" first appeared in sports to describe a terrace at Arsenal's Manor Ground in 1904. In 1906, Liverpool and Preston North End formally renamed the banked stand at one end of their ground Spion Kop, after a hill in Natal that was the site of a battle in the Second Boer War, where the British forces suffered heavy losses (many of the fallen were Scousers in the Lancashire Regiment). Many other football grounds, such as Blackpool FC (Bloomfield Road), St Andrews, Birmingham and both Bramall Lane and Hillsborough, Sheffield, adopted the name of "Kop" for one of their stands.

At its peak, the stand could hold 30,000 spectators, and was one of the largest single tier stands in the world after the East Stand at The Valley. Local folklore claimed that the fans in the Kop could "suck the ball into the goal" if Liverpool were playing towards that end. Traditionally, if the Liverpool captain wins the coin toss at the start of the game; he will choose for Liverpool to kick toward the Kop in the second half. There are often boos from the crowd when rival teams choose to prevent this should they win the coin toss.^{[citation needed]} Licensed capacity was lowered to just under 22,000 with the Safety of Sports Grounds Act in 1975, and the limit was lowered again due to safety measures brought in following the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. Finally the Kop was completely rebuilt as an all seater stand in 1994, although the new Kop like the old one is a single tier. The current capacity is 12,499.

The giant flagpole found at Kop End was the top mast from the SS Great Eastern, one of the first ever iron ships. The club came by it when they were looking for a flagpole, and with the ship being broken up at nearby Rock Ferry, they decided to purchase it^[5]

The other stands are:

• Main Stand - rebuilt in 1973 and more or less unchanged to the present day, with a capacity of 12,277.
• Centenary Stand - originally known as the Kemlyn Road Stand. This stand was built in 1963 and it used to have seating for 6600 fans. In the late 1970s-early 1980s, the club started to buy all the houses on Kemlyn Road with the aim of demolishing all of them so that the existing stand could be expanded. The club had bought nearly all the houses in the street by 1981 but the planned expansion had to be delayed for nearly a decade because Joan and Nora Mason refused to move out of their home until finally accepting a settlement in 1990. The development was then started which saw all of the houses in Kemlyn Road demolished and the address becoming non-existent. A second tier was added to the stand which gave it a capacity of 11,762. The new stand was opened for the club's centenary in 1992. It is now known as the Centenary Stand.
• Anfield Road Stand - rebuilt in 1998, with a capacity of 9,074, including the away fans section. The Away fans are located on the lower tier, where just under 2,000 seats are available. This stand is also shared with home supporters, some of whom will be sitting in the small seated tier above the away fans.

Due to the difficulties of expanding Anfield beyond its current boundaries (an entire terraced street had to be demolished to make way for the Centenary Stand expansion), Liverpool are expected to leave the ground in the next few years.

The original plan, announced in December 2000, had been for a 70,000-seat stadium to be ready for August 2004. But the plans were re-written 18 months later after the club's directors decided that the 70,000-seat plan would have been too costly. When the relocation goes ahead, Liverpool will demolish all four stands of the existing Anfield ground but retain the pitch as a garden of remembrance, as so many deceased fans have had their ashes scattered on the Anfield pitch - including some of the Hillsborough victims.

Record Attendance: 61,905 v Wolverhampton Wanderers, February 2, 1952 (FA Cup 4th Round)

• 2003-04: 42,706
• 2004-05: 42,587
• 2005-06: 44,236
• 2006-07: 43,561
• 2007-08 (as of 1/12/07/): 43,899

A number of international matches have been played at Anfield, including some that were nominally "home" matches for Wales. The ground also hosted four matches in the Euro 96 finals. The latest international match to be hosted at Anfield, in 2006, took place on 1 March. This was a friendly between England and Uruguay which England won 2-1.

Date	Home team	Score	Away team	Notes
2 March 1889	England	6-1	Ireland	British Home Championship
27 March 1905	England	3-1	Wales	British Home Championship
13 March 1922	England	1-0	Wales	British Home Championship
20 October 1926	England	3-3	Ireland	British Home Championship
11 November 1931	England	3-1	Wales	British Home Championship
16 September 1944	England	2-2	Wales	Wartime International
23 September 1959	England	0-1	Hungary	Under-23 International
27 November 1963	England	4-1	West Germany	Under-23 International
12 October 1977	Wales	0-2	Scotland	World Cup qualifier
25 February 1981	England	1-0	Republic of Ireland	Under-21 International
13 December 1994	England	2-0	Republic of Ireland	B International
13 December 1995	Republic of Ireland	0-2	Netherlands	European Championship playoff
11 June 1996	Italy	2-1	Russia	European Championship Group C
14 June 1996	Czech Republic	2-1	Italy	European Championship Group C
19 June 1996	Russia	3-3	Czech Republic	European Championship Group C
22 June 1996	France	0-0	Netherlands	European Championship Quarter Final (after extra time; France progressed 5-4 on penalties)
5 September 1998	Wales	0-2	Italy	European Championship qualifier
9 June 1999	Wales	0-2	Denmark	European Championship qualifier
24 March 2001	England	2-1	Finland	World Cup qualifier
17 April 2002	England	4-0	Paraguay	Friendly International
1 March 2006	England	2-1	Uruguay	Friendly International

1. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7081610.stm
2. ^ ^{a b} "Guide to Anfield", BBC, January 10, 2005. 
3. ^ Kop Classics. Liverpoolfc.tv.
4. ^ "Soccer: Home is where the heart is", Channel NewsAsia, May 16, 2006. 
5. ^ Platt, Mark (August 26, 2005). CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF THE KOP. Liverpoolfc.tv.

• Worldstadiums entry
• My Anfield - Coverage of LFC and the new stadium
• Liverpool FC website
• Collection of fans' Anfield memories
• Virtual tour at official Liverpool FC site

Liverpool FC v • d • e
Liverpool FC | Players | Managers | Seasons | European records | Records and statistics | History Anfield | Stanley Park Stadium | Melwood Merseyside derby | Manchester United F.C. rivalry Reserves and Academy | The Boot Room | LFC TV | Liverpool L.F.C.
Premier League venues, 2007–2008 v • d • e
Anfield• Boleyn Ground• City of Manchester Stadium• Craven Cottage• Emirates Stadium Ewood Park• Fratton Park• Goodison Park• JJB Stadium• Madejski Stadium Old Trafford• Pride Park Stadium• Reebok Stadium• Riverside Stadium• St Andrews St James' Park• Stadium of Light• Stamford Bridge• Villa Park• White Hart Lane
UEFA 4-star rated football stadia v • d • e
Parken Stadium Anfield City of Manchester Stadium Stadium of Light St Mary's Stadium Villa Park Parc des Princes Stade Gerland Karaiskákis Stadium Philips Stadion Gelredome Råsunda Stadium Ullevi Stadium St. Jakob-Park

Coordinates: 53°25′50.95″N, 2°57′38.98″W