• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Betting Offers UK

Best Free Bets & Casino Sign Up Offers For 2022

  • Betting Offers
  • Free Bets
  • Casino Bonuses
  • Home
  • New Sites
  • Free Spins
  • Free Bet Clubs
  • Bookies
  • Football
    • Premier League
  • Horse Racing
    • Cheltenham Festival
      • Disruptions & Cancellations
      • Old Course v New Course
      • Prestbury Cup
      • Top Trainers
      • Top Jockeys
      • Amateur Races
    • Grand National
      • Picking a Winner
      • Grand National Winners
      • Grand National Fences
      • Disruptions & Cancellations
      • Back to Back Winners
      • How Often Does the Favourite Win?
      • Prize Money
      • Virtual Grand National
      • Grand National Sponsors
      • Reserve Horses
      • How Many Finish
      • How Many Run
      • Grey Horses
      • Popularity
      • Amateur Jockeys
  • Irish Lottery
  • Blog

Which Is the Most Successful Football City in England: London, Manchester or Liverpool?

21 October, 2020

England Flag Against Floodlit StadiumIt’s the age-old question: which is the most successful footballing city in England?

You could extend it out to the whole of the UK, with Glasgow – where Celtic and Rangers reside – also entering the conversation, but as far as England is concerned there are three main contenders that immediately spring to mind.

London, with its huge number of elite-level clubs, is clearly going to be front and centre in any discussion about England’s finest footballing city – Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham….and the list goes on.

As for Manchester, well, you know the drill here. Manchester United were a powerhouse of English football for decades, while their neighbours City have – aided by the millions of their oil-owning owners – become a major player in the modern era.

And don’t write off Liverpool, where the Reds and Everton have been at the forefront of the English game for a long, long time.

Honourable mentions go to Nottingham – Forest’s exploits in Europe will never be forgotten, while County are one of the oldest football clubs in the world, while Sheffield’s place in the history of the game cannot be undermined – Sheffield F.C. can rightfully lay claim to being the planet’s first organised football club.

So how do we measure success? There are a number of different metrics that we could use, but clearly the most widely-accepted factor in football is silverware – lifting trophies is, ultimately, the only totem of a team’s success that counts.

With that in mind, let’s rank the footballing cities of London, Manchester and Liverpool based upon the number of trophies they have won. For the purposes of this article, we have focused on the key domestic and continental competitions – the likes of the Community Shield and the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy have been omitted.

Premier League/Division One Titles

Cristiano Ronaldo at Old Trafford
Image Credit: Gordon Flood, flickr

For decades, the best teams in England battled it out for the Division One title. That changed ahead of the 1992/93 season when the competition was repackaged as the Premier League, and we have combined both of those into our calculations below. Here’s London, Manchester and Liverpool’s haul of top-flight titles:

League Titles by City

London Manchester Liverpool
Team Titles Team Titles Team Titles
Arsenal 13 Manchester United 20 Liverpool 19
Chelsea 6 Manchester City 6 Everton 9
Tottenham 2
Total 21 Total 26 Total 28

So there you have it! As far as top-flight titles is concerned, Liverpool is the most successful city in England – thanks mostly to the eponymous Reds and Everton’s occasional dominance (they have won the league in six different decades).

Fast forward ten years and the tallies might look different if the Sheikhs hang around the loyalty lounge at Manchester City long enough, although it appears as though it will be a while before a London club reasserts their dominance on the league title.

Domestic Cups

Arsenal Players with the FA Cup in 2015
Image Credit: Joshjdss, flickr

As mentioned, for the purposes of this article we are focusing on the two ‘major’ English cups – the FA Cup and the League Cup, in its many different guises. We have kicked the Community Shield and other minor competitions to the kerb. Here are the city rankings when combing FA and League Cup wins.

Domestic Cups by City

London Manchester Liverpool
Team Trophies Team Trophies Team Trophies
Arsenal 16 Manchester United 17 Liverpool 23
Chelsea 13 Manchester City 13 Everton 5
Tottenham 12
West Ham 3
Charlton 1
Wimbledon 1
QPR 1
Total 47 Total 30 Total 28

The greater geographical reach of London has paid dividends in this category, with the likes of West Ham, Wimbledon, Charlton and QPR contributing to the capital’s cause. Speaking specifically about the FA Cup, there has been a real north/south divide in terms of the teams that have lifted the famous trophy, and certainly the record suggest that northern clubs – especially in the early days – weren’t all that fussed with winning it.

European Trophies

Liverpool Trophy Cabinet with European Cups
Image Credit: Ben Sutherland, flickr

For clarity, in this section we have focused our ranking based on performances in three continental competitions: the Champions League (and the European Cup years), the Europa League (and its UEFA Cup years) and the Cup Winners’ Cup, a tournament aimed at domestic cup winners which ran from 1960 until 1999. Here’s how the city have fared:

European Trophies by City

London Manchester Liverpool
Team Trophies Team Trophies Team Trophies
Arsenal 1 Manchester United 5 Liverpool 9
Chelsea 5 Manchester City 1 Everton 1
Tottenham 3
West Ham 1
Total 10 Total 6 Total 10

It’s a dead heat between London and Liverpool here, with capital clubs enjoying most of their success in the ‘lesser’ European tournaments and Liverpool winning more than half of their city’s haul in the Champions League/European Cup. As such, it’s a moral victory for the Merseyside city.

Total Trophy Haul

Arsenal v Chelsea at the Emirates
Image Credit: Ronnie Macdonald, flickr

So what happens when we add together all of the trophies won by each city?

Total Trophies by City

Position City Total Trophies
1st London 77
2nd Liverpool 66
3rd Manchester 62

There you have it: London is English football’s most successful city. It’s probably not a huge surprise given its geographical size and financial advantages over Manchester and Liverpool, but it’s an accolade capital dwellers can hang their hat on.

Intriguingly, if we only consider top-flight league titles and European trophies, Liverpool come out on top, Manchester is in second and London is trailing in third. So more major success has been enjoyed by the northern cities!

Perhaps this debate will rumble on for some time yet….

Previous Post: « The FA Rules on Retrospective Punishments: What Are They and Do They Need to Change?
Next Post: What is the Horserace Betting Levy Board, and How Does It Fund UK Horse Racing? »

Primary Sidebar

Blog

Silver Stopwatch on Running Track
How Has the 100m Sprint World Record Progressed Since Jim Hines Broke 10 Seconds?
Golf Ball on 100 Dollar Banknotes Close Up
Who Else Will Join the PGA TOUR, DP World and LIV Golf Merger?
Singapore Turf Club Logo
Huge Shock as Horse Racing in Singapore to End in 2024 After More Than 180 Years
Manchester United v Manchester City - Mancunian Derby
Bragging Rights: Local Derbies in Major Football Cup Finals
Football Goal Net in Stadium Close Up
Which Premier League Players Have Won the Title and Been Relegated with the Same Club?
More Blog Posts | Full Archives

Archives

Betting Sign Up Offers

  • Free Bets
    • Bet £5 Get £20/£30+
    • Bet £10 Get £30/£40+
    • Casino Free Bets
  • Casino Bonuses
  • Free Spins

Loyalty Offers

  • Acca Bonuses
  • Acca Insurance
  • Best Odds Guaranteed
  • Free Bet Clubs
  • Loyalty Points

Major Events

  • Grand National
    • How to Pick the Grand National Winner
    • Grand National Winners
    • Grand National Fences
    • Prize Money
    • Disruptions & Cancellations
    • Back to Back Winners
    • How Often Does the Favourite Win?
    • What Is the Virtual Grand National?
    • Grand National Sponsors
    • Reserve Horses
    • How Many Horses Finish?
    • How Many Horses Run?
    • Most Successful Owners
    • Changes Over Time
    • Female Jockeys
    • Grey Horses in the Grand National
    • Amateur Jockeys
    • Popularity
  • Cheltenham Festival
    • Festival Disruptions & Cancellations
    • Old Course v New Course
    • The Prestbury Cup
    • Top Trainers
    • Top Jockeys
    • Amateur Races
  • Premier League
    • Without the Big Six?
  • Irish Lottery

Related Posts

  • Bragging Rights: Local Derbies in Major Football Cup Finals
  • Which Premier League Players Have Won the Title and Been Relegated with the Same Club?
  • How Long Does It Take for a Club Relegated from the Premier League to Return to the Top-Flight?
  • How Often Have Southampton Been Relegated & What Happened to them Next?
  • Who are the Most Famous One-Club Men in Football?
  • How Many Points Do You Need to Stay Up In the Premier League?
  • Why Do So Many Women Footballers Suffer ACL Injuries?
  • Fortuna Dusseldorf Make Match Tickets Free of Charge: Could It Work in the Premier League?
  • What is a Salary Cap in Football and Could It Work in the Premier League?
  • Do You Have to Spend Money to Be Successful In Modern Football?

Betting Blog

  • American Football
  • Athletics
  • Betting Industry
  • Boxing
  • Cricket
  • Darts
  • Football
  • General
  • Golf
  • Horse Racing
  • Motor Racing
  • Politics
  • Rugby
  • Snooker
  • Tennis
betting-sites.co.uk
gambling-sites.co.uk

Please bet responsibly. If you need help to stop gambling visit Gamstop.


Copyright © 2023 Betting-Offers.com | BeGambleAware.org 18+