About Anfield Index
From One Liverpool Fan to a Global Community
Anfield Index began in 2011 with a simple idea, to give Liverpool supporters a voice.
Founded by Gags Tandon, the site started as a passion project at a time when independent fan media was still finding its feet. Social media was changing how supporters communicated, podcasts were emerging as a new way to talk about football, and Gags saw an opportunity to bring Liverpool fans together.
The principle was simple. It shouldn’t matter whether you were from Liverpool, elsewhere in the UK or thousands of miles from Anfield. If you loved the club and had something worth saying, there should be a platform for your voice.
That philosophy helped create a genuinely international community. Over the years, Anfield Index hosted contributors and podcasts from around the world, bringing together supporters with different backgrounds, accents, experiences and opinions, united by Liverpool FC.
Statistics and detailed football analysis were central to Anfield Index from the beginning. Long before data became part of everyday football conversation, the site was producing statistical articles and analysis designed to look beyond the scoreline and understand why matches were won and lost.
It was fan media driven by passion, but with a desire to dig deeper.
Audio soon became another defining part of Anfield Index.
Dave Hendrick was part of the very first Anfield Index podcast and remains a major part of the network today. Across more than a decade of Liverpool coverage, his voice has become synonymous with Anfield Index, from post-match RAW to Daily Red and his regular analysis across the network.
That longevity matters. Contributors, platforms and the football media industry have changed enormously since 2011, but some of the voices that helped establish Anfield Index are still part of its identity today.
From Passion Project to Anfield Index Pro
For its first six years, Anfield Index remained primarily a hobbyist platform, albeit one with a remarkably loyal and growing audience.
The next major step arrived in 2017.
Gags had also established CricIndex, where Eddie Gibbs and Greig Hopcroft became involved as content contributors. That relationship eventually brought Eddie and Greig into Anfield Index and helped begin the transition from passion project to sustainable independent media business.
Anfield Index Pro launched in 2017, creating a subscription offering alongside the free Anfield Index platform.
It was also the beginning of another important era for the podcast network.
Trev Downey became one of Anfield Index’s principal podcast hosts following the launch of Pro and has remained one of its most recognisable voices ever since.
For many years, Trev hosted a hugely popular weekly show alongside Liverpool legend Jan Mølby, combining stories from Jan’s career with discussion and analysis of the modern Liverpool side.
The Pro era allowed Anfield Index to work with some extraordinary names from Liverpool’s history. Alongside Jan Mølby, Peter Beardsley contributed to the platform, while Sir Kenny Dalglish later became a regular presence on Anfield Index for around two years, appearing on a show hosted by Eddie Gibbs.
For a fan media platform that had begun with supporters connecting through social media, regularly sitting down with some of the greatest figures in Liverpool’s history represented an extraordinary milestone.
The philosophy behind Pro evolved too.
Rather than building Anfield Index around locking its best work behind a paywall, the model gradually moved towards making content widely accessible while giving subscribers a better experience.
That remains fundamental to Anfield Index Pro today.
Evolving With Fan Media
Football media has changed dramatically since Anfield Index began.
What started with written articles, statistics and podcasts developed into an extensive media network covering virtually every aspect of Liverpool FC, from match previews and post-match analysis to transfers, tactics, finances, academy football, fan culture and the wider game.
But the way supporters consume football content changed too.
Audio alone was no longer enough.
Anfield Index made a major commitment to YouTube and video, taking the discussions, personalities and analysis familiar to podcast listeners and building them for an increasingly video-led generation of football supporters.
Dave Davis has been at the heart of that evolution. His commitment to producing regular, consistent content has helped establish video as one of the central parts of the modern Anfield Index.
From daily Liverpool news and transfer developments to analysis and reaction, Dave has helped build a video operation designed around something supporters increasingly expect from modern fan media, being there every day when the story develops.
That coverage is strengthened by regular contributions from respected Liverpool journalists, including David Lynch and Lewis Steele, bringing reporting, insight and informed discussion alongside the supporter voices that have always defined Anfield Index.
Video now sits alongside podcasts and written analysis as one of the foundations of the platform.
Throughout those changes, the objective has remained remarkably similar to the one Gags established in 2011.
We want Liverpool supporters to hear authentic voices.
Our contributors come from Liverpool, elsewhere in the UK and countries around the world. We don’t believe geography determines how deeply somebody can care about Liverpool FC or whether they have something valuable to contribute to the conversation.
We combine supporters’ passion with detailed analysis, statistics, journalism, transfer discussion and debate. We cover the serious side of football, but we never want to lose sight of the fact that being a supporter is supposed to mean something.
The Anfield Index of Today
More than a decade of change has taken Anfield Index a long way from the hobbyist website Gags created in 2011.
The latest generation of Anfield Index has been built around bringing everything we do together.
A completely rebuilt website and new generation of mobile apps represented the largest external investment in the platform since Anfield Index began. Rather than simply updating what already existed, the Anfield Index experience was rebuilt from the ground up for the way supporters now consume football media.
Written content, podcasts and video now form part of one connected platform.
It also represented one of the most significant developments in the history of Anfield Index Pro.
Pro began as premium audio content before evolving towards an ad-free approach designed to support Anfield Index while keeping our content accessible.
Today, that philosophy extends across the platform.
Anfield Index Pro subscribers can enjoy our articles, podcasts and Pro video content without advertising, bringing written, audio and video coverage together as part of one subscription.
The technology has changed. The media landscape has changed. The way Liverpool supporters follow their club has changed.
The fundamental idea behind Anfield Index hasn’t.
Gags created Anfield Index to bring Liverpool supporters together, give people a platform and allow fans from around the world to be part of the conversation.
The people who have helped build it since have carried that idea through articles, statistics, podcasts, interviews, live shows and video.
Whatever comes next, that remains the purpose.
To give Liverpool supporters a voice, and help fans everywhere feel closer to the club they love.
