“We desperately need a win,” says the guy selling us a £2 fanzine outside Anfield.
It’s a brisk morning, fans are teeming around the stadium, and a well-worn club scarf is draped over his coat. He says he’s been involved with the ’zine for 20 years. Clearly, the lot of the Liverpool fan hasn’t got any easier in that time.
Later on, when Liverpool go a goal down to A.F.C Bournemouth within 10 minutes of kick-off, I think of this man.
My son and I are sitting in the Anfield Road Stand, and it’s as if someone has thrown a blanket over the stadium. The crowd has been momentarily silenced, bar for a small wedge of Bournemouth supporters who can’t believe their luck. They cheer and whoop as most of the 53,384 fans fume. There are no replays on big screens; just a keeper picking a ball from the back of his net.
It’s March 7, 2020. Liverpool are in a wobble that has seen them lose three of their last four matches, and this home clash is the first time Sam, then 10, has been to a Premier League game.
We’d debated whether to go ahead with the trip, as several cases of a worrying new Coronavirus have been reported in Ireland. But there’s no advice against travel and, in that moment, we’re delighted. The Kop stand is soon singing and swaying again. The mood lifts around the ground. The team responds.
Soon, Mohamed Salah has scored for Liverpool. Nine minutes later, Sadio Mané adds another. The singing, and 2-1 scoreline, last to full-time.
Days later, the WHO declares a pandemic. A week later, Ireland is in lockdown. Three months later, Liverpool win their first league title in 30 years, celebrating in an eerily empty Anfield while we watch on a laptop.
Those images feel forever fixed in my brain. The intoxicating thrill of being part of a massive sporting crowd, and the loneliness of lockdown, when sports — albeit clinical and crowd-free — gave us something small to look forward to and gather around (virtually, at least).
Today, in the summer of 2022, sport and travel continue their breathtaking rebounds. I’m not surprised. During the worst pandemic restrictions, I think many people like us vowed to seize the day when they could — be that diving back into live sport, or booking bucket-list trips.
Or both. Sports travel is experiencing a boom, says James Fleming of Cassidy Sports, with whom we booked our Liverpool ‘match break’ package in 2020. The travel agent is “out of the dressing room at the moment with all things sports, but especially football,” he says.
Unsurprisingly, Liverpool trips are among the most sought-after. Sam is one of many thousands of Irish fans following a tradition you could trace from 19th-century emigration through to Irish players like Mark Lawrenson, Ray Houghton, Ronnie Whelan, Steve Staunton and John Aldridge, who played key roles in the club’s last golden era in the 1980s. Our short Ryanair flights to and from Liverpool are crammed with fans of all ages.
Arsenal and Spurs trips are also proving popular for the 2022/23 season, Cassidy says. And there is unusually good value for Manchester United. “As a result of the team not being in the Champions League this year and not playing the best last year, ticket prices for United have plummeted,” Fleming says. The company also sells trips to Spain’s La Liga and Italy’s Serie A, among others.
As well as Cassidy, agents like Club Travel, Abbey Travel, Marathon Sports, Shandon Travel, Killester Travel and Celtic Horizons have packages to sports events as diverse as Six Nations rugby games, the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome, Wimbledon, Cheltenham and various Formula 1 grand prix. Covid hasn’t gone away, but crowds are back with a bang. Formula 1 is adding a race in Las Vegas next year, and Anfield is expanding to a 61,000-seater.
The big trips can cost a small fortune. But being in that atmosphere, watching Sam’s superheroes play in real time, is electric. The regal Virgil van Dijk conducting from centre back. Mané’s grace, balance and stinging shots. Manager Jürgen Klopp punching the air in front of the stands. James Milner’s heroic clearance from the goal line ( YouTube it). Salah trotting back to the centre circle after scoring, touching his forehead off the ground in the Islamic sujood.
Of course, you miss the angles and analysis of TV. But you gain an overview of the pitch (“It feels so small,” Sam says), and a sense of what players are doing off the ball, right down to the expressions on their faces. And temporarily, we are part of a tribe.
The language around us does get salty, and we all know sports crowds can have their dark sides, but our Liverpool experience is broadly positive from start to finish. We fly in the night before, and spend the next morning exploring Albert Dock, looking out over the Mersey, talking about The Beatles, buying a bag of sweets and wondering how this team has such a grip on the Irish imagination. “Everton fans are from Liverpool,” our Uber driver says en route to the stadium. “Liverpool fans come from all over the world.”
We’re among them. And the first sight of Anfield, rising between redbrick terraces, gives us goosebumps. We leave plenty of time to soak up the buzz, buy a scarf, browse that £2 fanzine, and wolf down a pie from the community-run Homebaked bakery (it’s stamped with the word ‘Shankly’, the legendary Liverpool FC manager). We do a lap of the ground, squeeze through the ridiculously overpriced LFC Superstore, stop by the lovingly tended Hillsborough memorial, and watch the team buses arrive. Bournemouth’s is booed. Liverpool’s is cheered.
Beside us are two US tourists, also a father and son. “I’m talking like I know everything,” the dad tells me. “We watched a lot of YouTube videos.”
Our hospitality package includes pre-match food and drinks in a suite just a short corridor from the stand. Taking our seats, we watch giant LFC letters get swallowed up as crowds file in, the players warm-up, and we’re soon subsumed in the sound of 50,000-plus people singing.
“All of the songs start in the Kop,” Sam notes. “The atmosphere is amazing.” Most moving is You’ll Never Walk Alone, sungbefore kick-off, full-voiced and emotional. The hairs on my neck stand up.
“Being at a game at Anfield is like being high while ingesting nothing,” writes Guardian columnist and fan Hannah Jane Parkinson the next day. “The stands seem to have lungs.”
Afterwards, we follow dozens of other fans to the stadium’s garage exit, hanging around until several players drive out. Salah emerges in a white Bentley, Roberto Firmino in a yellow Lamborghini, Milner in a Range Rover and Klopp in a Vauxhall estate, which feels perfect.
The football itself has been nervous and testy. But locals get the result they want. Several games later, that three-decade-long duck will be broken.
“I’m 30 and I’m going grey,’ says the Uber driver taking us back to the city — a season ticketholder who took a break to attend the game. Welcome to Liverpool.
Premier League packages
Pól and Sam were guests of Cassidy Travel, whose Premier League 2022/23 match break packages include trips to Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Spurs, Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Leeds and Newcastle.
Package prices start from €279pp (ex flights), but rates and availability depend on the popularity of matches, the length and style of stay, and what’s included.
Liverpool v Bournemouth on August 27, for example, starts from €439pp, while the titanic clash with Manchester City (October 15) starts at €749pp (both ex flights).
Liverpool Sandon Hospitality packages include match tickets in the Anfield Road Stand, reception drinks and meal, post-match refreshments, a match programme and one hotel night. Upgrades are also available.
Bear in mind that packages are sold for fixtures, rather than exact dates. League schedules can change, so make sure any travel arrangements allow for that.
See cassidytravel.ie/sports-breaks, call 01 877-9853 or email sports@cassidytravel.ie for more details.
Match day tips & stadium tours
Taxis or Ubers cost around £8-£10 (€9.55-€11.94) from the city centre, and there are several bus options, including the express 917 service from St John’s Lane, opposite Lime Street Station. It starts about three hours before kick-off.
Top tip? Get there early. Eat a pie, have a pint, chat to locals and feel the buzz build. Bring some cash (sterling) — Anfield is a cashless stadium, but lots of the vendors selling scarves, ’zines and so on outside are not.
In winter, stadia can get wet, windy and cold, so think about layers, hats, thick socks or boots, and gloves for chilly hands. A few energy bars, water (in a plastic bottle) and a sharpie (in case an autograph opportunity pops up) are useful, too. See thisisanfield.com for more tips.
You can also book stadium tours at Anfield, including the dressing rooms, dugout, Kop and museum from £23/£14 (€27.46/€16.71). Tours are available on match days, but are more expensive at £25/£18 (€29.85/€21.49) and do not include dressing or press rooms, for obvious reasons. stadiumtours.liverpoolfc.com
Official tickets and travel
It’s possible to buy tickets directly (from £9-£59/€10.74-€70.43; liverpoolfc.com) and Ryanair flies from Dublin to Liverpool (ryanair.com); ferry travel is also an option.
However, match tickets are sold first to members and season ticketholders, with a limited number going on sale a week or so before games. For a once-off trip, we felt it safer (and certainly a lot easier) to book a package.
See visitliverpool.com for more to do in the city.
Netflix’s Drive to Survive poured petrol on F1’s popularity, and gave sports fans a lifeline in lockdown. Grand Prix 2023 locations range from Silverstone to Las Vegas.
The Irish rugby team travel to Cardiff, Rome and Edinburgh for the 2023 Six Nations. Next year’s Rugby World Cup takes place in France, for which packages are also available.
Want to see an exotic sport at home? The Aer Lingus College Classic brings Notre Dame v Navy and Northwestern v Nebraska to Dublin this August 26 and 27.
