The journey to watch a Liverpool football club which never found its way home

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A football club in Liverpool was founded by a group of 'hopeless romantics' who shared a vision for a supporter-led club in the heart of the cityIt was all started in 2015 by a group of 'hopeless romantics' who wanted to create a member-owned football club in Liverpool. In September 2015, and within the walls of the Quaker Meeting House on School Lane, the City of Liverpool Football Club (COLFC) was founded as a supporter-owned club, and set up as a Community Benefit Society.It had lofty aims, and was keen to delineate a space for fans of both Everton FC and Liverpool FC to come together and back a football project rooted in the community, for the community.

Instead, they set their sights on a new location, and struck a deal with Bootle FC to play at Vesty Road, and submitted an application to join the FA National League System at Step 6.It was an exciting time, and (full disclosure) I became one of the club's first paid-up members.Looking back now, and by the end of the Brendan Rodgers era, I was disenchanted by Premier League football, and the arguments listed above about the commercialisation of the game, had resonated with me.Perhaps like many other Liverpool FC fans, the initial sense of rebellion and disconnect started to ebb away when Jurgen Klopp took over, and I became drawn into the tractor-beam of the German's undoubted charisma, his managerial excellence, and his declared intention to reinstate the connection between fans and players.As a result, and after attending a few games in support of COLFC, my initial commitment started to wain and I soon tuned out of what was going on, only checking in occasionally to see if the project was still going.Those cursory glances gave a clue to the mounting challenges faced by the club, as it battled to find a home ground to play its matches, something both necessary and vital to achieve a sustainable future.In 2018, and after clinching two cups and promotion in its inaugural season, the club took a huge step towards securing its own ground. The proposals would see COLFC revitalise the derelict all-weather football pitch, and adjoining community park, to provide a “first-class community sporting amenity.”Once again, that dream died, this time in the face of opposition from Liverpool city councillors, including Old Swan West ward representative Cllr William Shirtall who said at the time: "I had serious issues with this bid and the proposals for a community football ground here."Along with many residents, I was concerned that the proposals would take away recreational space from the community, as well as causing transport problems locally."During this period, COLFC alternated their temporary homes between Bootle, the Vauxhall Motors in Ellesmere Port, the DCBL Stadium in Widnes, before signing a two-year groundshare agreement with Burscough FC in July 2025.COLFC's dream had always been to create a home stadium in Liverpool, so with the move to Burscough, and no new plans for a permanent ground, the club's dream has never been further away, both practically and geographically.

The sadness of that reality will hit everyone who wished the project success, and certainly motivated me to look a little deeper into what has been happening.So when I saw a few social media posts at the end of last year, I was concerned to read about some of the difficulties at the club, culminating in a statement published to COLFC's website on December 24.Titled 'Boxing Day and beyond', COLFC chairman Paul Manning posted an update stating: "It is with regret that COLFC announces that it is unable to fulfil our Boxing Day fixture against South Liverpool FC, due to financial difficulties.We have notified the NWCFL, South Liverpool FC and the Match Officials and apologise to anybody who had made plans to attend the game."This statement was preceded by a disastrous run of results where COLFC had lost nine of its previous ten games, conceding 57 goals, and plunging them into the relegation zone of The North West Counties Football League's Premier Division. But something unexpected happened, and far from facing down another crushing defeat, the team rallied and came back to even the score 2-2, and could easily have fashioned a winner.As the players left the pitch to the few cheering fans there to watch the comeback, the game reminded me of why I was drawn to this club in the first place.The game was a home fixture in name only, it was played 14 miles outside Liverpool city centre, but factoring in the scale of the financial challenges facing non-league football clubs, especially those without their own stadium, the ongoing existence of COLFC seems something akin to a miracle.Although a symbolic departure from COLFC's original method statement, playing so far outside its designated home city, perhaps speaks to the complexities and significant difficulties in keeping a lower league football club alive and running.