The Anfield Wrap

About The Anfield Wrap

The Anfield Wrap, published at theanfieldwrap.com, is Liverpool's leading independent fan media company, producing podcasts, radio shows, videocasts, live shows, magazine content and website articles predominantly about Liverpool Football Club, alongside coverage of the culture and music of the city of Liverpool. Founded on 1 August 2011, it grew from a single weekly podcast recorded in a makeshift studio above a city-centre pub into a multi-award-winning media operation with hundreds of thousands of weekly downloads in more than 200 countries. Described by the sports journalist Barry Glendenning as "essential listening for Liverpool fans", it has become one of the most influential supporter-led media brands in world football.

History and founding

The Anfield Wrap was born out of one of the most turbulent periods in Liverpool FC's modern history. In 2010 the club was in the grip of an uprising as supporters rose up against the ownership of George Gillett and Tom Hicks: there were protests outside Anfield, sit-ins after matches and black anti-owner jerseys in the stands. The campaign to oust the owners brought Liverpool fans together and made them more active on social media and the internet — and those conversations were the catalyst for The Anfield Wrap. As editor Gareth Roberts later explained, the venture "sprang from the ashes of the Hicks and Gillett era": supporters felt the mainstream media had not reflected fans' thoughts and feelings, so they turned to their own media to share news and views. The Anfield Wrap was conceived as an extension of that idea — a podcast and website that would reflect the views of match-going Liverpool fans.

The first shows were recorded in 2011 in a makeshift studio above a pub in Liverpool city centre, with the founders determined that the show should be professionally produced from the very first week. The feedback was immediately positive, and the operation grew steadily from there: from one free podcast a week to a subscription package of around thirty shows a month by 2016, and eventually to more than a hundred podcasts and videos a month. The company was founded by a collective of Liverpool broadcasters and journalists, and its directors have included Neil Atkinson, Andy Heaton, John Gibbons, Wayne Scholes and Colin Zito, with Atkinson serving as chief executive.

Neil Atkinson, John Gibbons and the team

The Anfield Wrap's public face is its team of presenters and contributors, all match-going Liverpool supporters. Neil Atkinson, the company's chief executive, is the flagship show's host and the driving force behind its growth; John Gibbons is a long-standing co-host and one of the founders; Andy Heaton, Mike Girling, Gareth Roberts and others complete the core team. The operation also ran a phone-in show on Liverpool's City Talk radio station (105.9 FM), extending its reach into local broadcast radio. The presenting style is conversational, passionate and rooted in the match-going experience: the shows talk honestly about every game Liverpool play, home and away, in the Premier League, the cups and European competition. That authenticity — supporters talking to supporters, rather than pundits talking down to an audience — has been central to the brand's appeal.

Podcasts and the TAW Player

Podcasting is the heart of The Anfield Wrap. The flagship free show, recorded in Liverpool city centre every Sunday or Monday, is described as the essential weekly look at the key issues on the minds of Liverpool supporters — the weekend's game, transfer business and matters off the pitch. Around it sits a large subscription offering, TAW Player, which for £5 a month gives subscribers access to up to fifteen new shows a week plus the full archive of everything the company has produced. The catalogue spans match previews and reviews, transfer specials, tactical analysis, historical features, culture and music shows, and the chaotic fan phone-ins that became a cult favourite. The scale is remarkable for an independent fan operation: the shows have been downloaded more than 40 million times in total, with weekly downloads averaging around a quarter of a million across more than 200 countries — a reach the company has proudly noted extends even to Vatican City.

Video, live shows and touring

Beyond audio, The Anfield Wrap produces videocasts and has appeared in video clips for ITV News, Sky Sports, Premier League World and the BBC's Newsbeat, as well as in the Fox Sports documentary "Being Liverpool". Live shows have become a major part of the business: the company has sold out venues in Australia, the United States, Scandinavia, Ireland, Hong Kong, Dubai and across England, and has performed on stage at the fan festivals before three Champions League finals and at Liverpool's Sound City Festival. These live events — part comedy night, part football discussion, part celebration — have turned the podcast's community into a real-world phenomenon, with supporters' clubs around the world hosting shows. The touring operation reflects how thoroughly the brand has transcended its origins as a weekly pub recording.

Interviews and access

Despite its independent, fan-led status, The Anfield Wrap has secured interviews with some of the biggest names in Liverpool's history. Its shows have featured conversations with Kevin Keegan, Jürgen Klopp, Kenny Dalglish, Brendan Rodgers, Rafa Benítez, Gérard Houllier, Rick Parry, Jamie Carragher, Lucas Leiva and Xabi Alonso, among others. The company has also represented fan views in the wider media on issues such as ticket prices and kick-off times, giving supporters a voice in debates that affect them directly. That combination — access to the club's figures alongside an unapologetically supporter perspective — is unusual in football media, and it has given the Wrap a credibility that spans both the fanbase and the professional press.

Awards and recognition

The Anfield Wrap is one of the most decorated fan media operations in Britain. It won Podcast of the Year at the Football Supporters' Federation Awards in 2015, and has collected multiple awards since. Barry Glendenning's description of it as "essential listening for Liverpool fans" is widely quoted, and the trade press has recognised its commercial and editorial achievement: when it joined the Sport Social Podcast Network — Europe's largest dedicated sports podcast network — the network's head called it "a giant in the world of Premier League fan media". Its download figures tell their own story: 28 million downloads by July 2017, more than 40 million in total, and a weekly audience in the hundreds of thousands. Few independent media ventures of any kind can match that trajectory from a pub back room.

Business model

The Anfield Wrap operates on a hybrid model of free and subscription content. The flagship weekly show is free to all listeners, while TAW Player subscriptions at £5 a month fund the bulk of the output. Advertising and sponsorship — the shows carry sponsor messages — provide additional revenue, and live shows and touring generate income alongside the digital operation. Joining the Sport Social Podcast Network gave the company the backing of a major podcast network while retaining its independent identity. The model depends on the loyalty of its audience: supporters pay not just for content but for belonging, and the company's growth suggests that belonging is something fans will fund directly when the product earns their trust.

Culture, music and the city

From the start, The Anfield Wrap has covered more than football. Its remit explicitly includes the culture and music of Liverpool, reflecting the founders' belief that supporting the club is inseparable from the life of the city. Shows and articles have covered Liverpool's music scene, its venues and its cultural debates, alongside the football. That broader lens connects the Wrap to Liverpool's long tradition of supporter culture as civic culture — the fanzines, the music, the politics of the Kop — and it distinguishes the operation from narrower football-only outlets. For its audience, The Anfield Wrap is not just a source of Liverpool FC news but a voice of the supporter community in all its dimensions.

Legacy and influence

The Anfield Wrap's legacy is the template it created for supporter-led football media. It showed that fans could build a professional, commercially sustainable media company that rivals traditional broadcasters for audience and influence — starting from nothing but a microphone above a pub. Its success inspired a generation of fan podcasts and channels across football, and its subscription model demonstrated that supporters would pay directly for independent coverage of their club. Fifteen years after its founding, it remains the benchmark against which Liverpool fan media is measured: essential listening, essential viewing, and proof that the most powerful voice in football media can belong to the supporters themselves.