A Brief History

The Liverpool Schools FA was founded in 1931 and is the most successful schools association in England. The under 15's and 11's each hold the record for having won their respective National titles the most times. The U15's lifting the English Trophy 19 times; the last time being in 2010, and the Primaries being national champions on 4 occasions.The first was in the inaugural year of 1994 at Wembley (3-0 v Vale of White Horse), 2003 (1-0 v Hull), 2010 with wins of 2-0 v South Birmingham, 1-0 v Bristol and 3-0 v Croydon and in 2011 with win on penalties against Hull. These are represented by the four stars above the Primary's badge.

However, for many years before this formal inception teams representing Liverpool Schools were organised by teachers. The first recorded game being more than 110 years ago. This is older than many Premiership clubs!! It truly is "A grand old team to play for".

The Primary City Team have won the Merseyside League 17 times and the Everton Cup 14; hence the Roman Numerals XVII and XIV on their sleeve. Both are records for the competitions.

In the history of the LSFA there are many examples of boys who have represented the city and then advanced to play at a higher level. Steve Coppell played in the first Primary Team of 1965/66. Sammy Lee captained the under 11's for two years from 1968-70, while Steve McMahon was skipper in 1971/72. Most recently, Wayne Rooney (who until recently was the Primary Team's all time top scorer in one season with 72 in the 95/96 primary season) has played for Everton and currently plays for Manchester United and England.  Steven Gerrard, Robbie Fowler (the associations all time top scorer having played at Primary, under 14 and 15 level) and Steve McManaman have played for Liverpool FC and England, while Jay McEveley has played for Blackburn, Derby and Scotland and Darren Potter, now at Wolves, has 5 caps for the Republic of Ireland.

Other notable ex-players include some legends of the game: Chris Lawler, Tommy Smith, Joe Royle, Terry Darracott, Ronnie Goodlass, Tony Grant, Dele Adebola, Gary Ablett, David Fairclough, David Johnson, Alan Whittle, Dave Watson, Kevin Nolan, Bradley Orr and Steve Redmond.

Many ex-schoolboys have gone on to win major honours - for example there were four ex-Liverpool boys players in the Liverpool team that won the European Cup in 1977. In fact from the records available to us, Liverpool have never failed to include at least one schoolboys player in any final they have played for more than 60 years!

Pride of place in this hall of fame has to go to Ian Callaghan though. Who, as well as the many league, cup and European Cup medals he won with Liverpool was also part of the England World Cup Squad of 1966. A World Cup winner!!

The Association has supplied 82 players who have been capped for the England Schools International team. In 2000 a new record was achieved when a school from the Association provided three international players. They were: John Welsh (Captain), Alan Moogan and Alan Schumacher, all attended Cardinal Heenan High School.

For many years our home ground was at " Penny Lane," a street that was made internationally famous by the Association many years before a song by the Beatles put its name permanently on the map.

However, we outgrew this celebrated venue and in September 1999,  moved to the new "City of Liverpool Soccer Centre".This modern sporting complex, built at the cost of, £ 2.6 million, fulfilled the needs of the LSFA at the start of the new millennium. The trophy room there celebrates the associations history and future with team photo's going back to 1910.

The Liverpool Schools FA has a broader brief though than just representative teams. It caters for the children of the city by providing competitive football for all schools in the city, played in a safe environment and in the correct manner.

A generous donation from local sponsors has helped the LSFA to reach their objectives. In recent years The Liverpool Echo has helped to make standards of schools football in the city the envy of the rest of the country and we look forward to the next 100 years.