HALIFAX—There was a split second of dead silence before the ball hit the back of the net, and then the pub exploded.

Around 100 Liverpool FC (football club) fans, most in red, packed into a Dartmouth bar on May 26 to watch the Champions League final between their English team and powerhouse Real Madrid, who went on to win the match 3-1.

Their one goal might have been the only time Liverpool fans blew off the roof with cheers, chanting and hugging, but the atmosphere in the bar was electric the whole afternoon. On great Liverpool plays, or any time someone walked in with a scarf for the Reds (the team nickname), a chorus of cheers would erupt.

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The historic club, which turned 126 years old on Sunday, has a devoted Halifax following that has already gathered more than 300 people on their Liverpool FC Halifax Facebook page, and a plan to become the city’s first official supporters club for a team in the English Premier League, one of the most-watched sports leagues in the world.

“It doesn’t matter where you’re from, how old you are — there’s kids there and everyone just comes together in supporting a common thing. I knew there would be fans here, it was just matter of pulling them together,” said supporters club founder Chris Perkins in an interview.

Perkins, 28, began the group a few months ago when he and his wife moved to Halifax from Alberta on New Year’s Eve. On January 2, Perkins said he began looking for the local Liverpool supporters club only to find there wasn’t one yet. So he launched the Facebook page.

Right away, fellow Liverpool fans Joshua Proffitt and Steve Kempton got in touch with Perkins to see how they could get involved, and the “committee” as Perkins dubbed them was born.

“I didn’t know anyone in Halifax when moved here, so I looked forward to these games every week because I got to be around people, and that’s just huge for me,” Perkins said in an interview alongside Proffitt and Kempton about catching the Liverpool matches with their group.

The club is so recognizable that an Indonesian man walking by the trio spotted their Liverpool kit and walked over to get a selfie with them, smiling and saying “Liverpool” with a thumbs-up.

Perkins, who is originally from England — though the “other side” of the country from Liverpool — said he got into the club through his dad, who loved the Reds’ long history. Now, he says, he’s now more of a “die-hard fan” than his father.

Proffitt, originally from Oxfordshire and a Haligonian of about 12 years, also was born into a family of Liverpool fans and has been to the iconic Anfield football pitch to watch games about five or six times.

“To describe to someone who’s never been, I don’t know if I could, honestly. You can’t describe 50,000 people singing the same song together as one. It’s an incredible experience, it’s the most phenomenal thing you’ll ever see,” Proffitt said.

That “passion beyond reason,” a Liverpool slogan, crosses generations, backgrounds, countries and brings out entire families, Proffitt said, including the 71-year-old grandmother who once sat next to him at a match and was singing the team anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone “way louder than I ever will.”

Kempton, 56, has followed the team from a distance here in Canada since he picked Liverpool to cheer for as a kid opposite his dad’s choice of Nottingham Forest FC. He’s seen two matches at Anfield and agrees it’s “spine-tingling” to hear a song like that rising over the pitch.

It’s another reason football (soccer in Canada) is such a different experience than other North American sports like football, hockey and basketball, where music is piped in.

“The fans, they create their own atmosphere, and they vary, obviously, between one club to another. It’s very unique,” Kempton said.

“Josh leads ours, let’s be honest,” Perkins interjected with a grin, as Proffitt nodded his head.

Proffitt said he’s seen the awareness of professional soccer rise in Halifax over the last 10 years. When he first moved here, there was nowhere to watch “anything,” but now you can watch every Premier League game live, and football seems to get “bigger by the day” with the growth of men’s and women’s leagues around the area.

The next step for the supporters club is to gather at least 15 signatures, pick a host bar, and apply to become an official affiliate club, which would mean they are listed on the Liverpool FC website and gain perks like increased access to match tickets.

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The Liverpool FC Halifax move comes at the same time the city landed its own Canadian Premier League team, the HFX Wanderers FC, who will play at a new 6,000-seat stadium at the Wanderers Grounds downtown.

All three men say the team is a “fantastic” thing for Halifax and the game in general in Nova Scotia, with Proffitt adding he already signed up for the membership so he’ll be the first to know about season tickets and other updates.

“I go to Toronto FC usually once a year, but that’s obviously a cost and a commitment, but to be able to come into my own city and come and watch a professional-standard team and league … it’s going to be phenomenal for football in Canada, and Halifax especially,” Proffitt said.

Kempton said the new men’s league — until now there has only been Major League Soccer (MLS) with teams from Canada and U.S. — is where the country has to go to build capacity and have a chance at putting a squad together that could have a chance at getting to the FIFA World Cup.

Seeing a group of Nova Scotians so dedicated to an English club highlights the beauty and international attraction of the game, said Derek Martin of Sports & Entertainment Atlantic who will operate the HFX Wanderers.

With the World Cup itself starting this month in Russia, Martin said there will be millions of people tuning in who root for countries as well as their own local club, plus maybe others in different leagues.

“It’s so well developed around the world that you don’t have to pick just one. We would love for Wanderers supporters to also be Liverpool supporters, they can support MLS games,” Martin said in an interview Sunday.

“I really feel soccer is all about community … that’s really the beauty of it and why I think it’s got such a unique appeal.”

Martin gives credit to the MLS and Toronto FC for helping increase the consumption and awareness of soccer in Canada, leading to more of an interest in soccer locally but until now there hasn’t been the chance to go support a team.

“(It’s) getting the chance to cheer for and represent their own community of where they’re from and where they live now, no matter where they’re from,” Martin said.

The Wanderers are already set to hit 600 members on Monday, Martin said, just over a week since the team launched their brand which is much higher than they were hoping for.

The Canadian Premier League is set to launch next spring with teams in Halifax, York, Calgary, and Victoria announced so far.

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