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Liverpool Football Club didn't officially exist until June 3rd 1892.

But today is - officially - The Reds’ 125th birthday.

It's a complicated wrangle, emanating from the acrimonious split which created Liverpool from Everton, but it really did happen 125 years ago today.

There is just one small issue.

The Reds were originally called “Everton Football Club and Athletic Ground Company, Limited.”

Which is maybe why it's not celebrated at Anfield.

The club which resides at Anfield today and operates under the Company number 35668 was incorporated at Companies House on January 26, 1892.

They didn't become Liverpool Football Club and Athletic Grounds Company Limited until June 3rd, 1892, but they DID exist from this day.

For five months there were TWO Everton Football Clubs operating on Merseyside, one which had plans to relocate and build a new stadium at Goodison Park, and another which John Houlding planned to keep at Anfield.

It’s a row which started the previous autumn when Everton’s president and owner of Anfield, John Houlding, fell out with a group of Everton directors led by George Mahon over the rent he was charging the football club.

A series of increasingly angry meetings came to a head on Monday, January 25, 1892 at the College Hall in Shaw Street.

At this time there was still only one Everton FC.

John Houlding did not attend this meeting, but his opponents discussed a move across Stanley Park to a new stadium in Goodison Road and it was announced that: “Mr. Clayton then moved that the club be formed into a limited company, with a capital of £500, in £1 shares, each member to be allocated one share. This resolution was also carried.”

William Barclay, a vice-president of the club and in the chair for this meeting, ended the proceedings by resigning his position as vice-president in protest.

The next day, on January 26, 1892 – the media reported that: “Mr John Houlding threw a bombshell into the camp of his opponents when he followed up their actions at the general meeting by promptly forming a new company, and registering it under the name of ‘Everton Football Club and Athletic Ground Company, Limited’, with a capital of £15.000 in £1 shares.”

Thus there were two Evertons.

And this new club, when registering with Companies House, received a Company Reg. number – 35668. This is still the number Liverpool FC use today.

There were two Evertons until June, but the seeds for the new name were sowed on March 15, 1892, in the shadow of Anfield Road.

At a general annual meeting for members of the Everton Football Club, John Houlding was removed from the presidency of the club by voting.

Then the meeting was asked to vote on whether: “The Everton Football Club do now amalgamate with the Everton Football Club and Athletic Grounds Company, Limited.” That resolution was not carried by the members.

But Houlding saw the writing on the wall.

Some sources claim that he retired to his home at Stanley House, in Anfield Road, along with a number of close friends where William Barclay suggested that “their club” should be known as “Liverpool.”

There is no written evidence of this, but on June 3rd, 1892, Liverpool Football Club finally adopted their historic title.

The official change of name was declared in the correspondence from Companies House which stated: “Sir, With reference to your application of the 24th instant, I am directed by the Board of Trade to inform you that they approve of the of the Everton Football Club and Athletic Grounds Company, Limited, being changed to the Liverpool Football Club and Athletic Grounds Company, Limited.

“This communication should be tendered to the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies, Somerset House, W.C., as his authority for entering the new name on the Register, and for issuing his Certificate under Section 13 of the Companies’ Act, 1862.”

Presumably to save time and not register a completely new club at Companies House, Liverpool simply changed the name of the club they had registered on January 26.

Liverpool FC came into being on June 3rd, but the club had already existed with a different title since January 26.

Like the monarch, maybe they can celebrate two birthdays!