The Spion Kop » The Kop http://www.thespionkop.co.uk A history of The Kop. Tue, 22 Nov 2011 09:51:40 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 The Spion Kop http://www.thespionkop.co.uk/the-spion-kop/ http://www.thespionkop.co.uk/the-spion-kop/#comments Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:43:16 +0000 admin http://67.225.226.31/?p=10 Spion Kop, also known as Kop in short, is a term informally used to describe a number of terraces and stands in sports arenas, especially in British football stadia.

Despite the usage of Spion Kop in various media to refer to terraces in various stadia throughout Britain, Anfield is the first stadium whose terrace is officially named Spion Kop.

Continue reading →]]> Spion Kop, also known as Kop in short, is a term informally used to describe a number of terraces and stands in sports arenas, especially in British football stadia. The name Spion Kop refers to the famous Battle of Spion Kop in January 1900. The British Army experienced traumatic defeat on that battle against South African Republic. Spion Kop is a hill just in the middle of Boer line, about 430 meters above ground. Higher stands in a stadium are referred as Spion Kop because of this particular feature of being higher than the ground. The slang was first used by local news reporter who described silhouettes of fans standing on the Woolwich Arsenal’s Manor Ground as similar to soldiers standing on top of the hill at the Battle of Spion Kop; it was 1904. Since then, a lot of higher platforms in British stadia have been referred to as ‘Kop’ or ‘Spion Kop’.

Two years after, exactly in 1906, Ernest Edwards who at the time was a sports editor for Liverpool Echo write about a new standing terrace at Anfield stadium. The platform was huge and indeed positioned in a way that makes it similar to Spion Kop. It was a name everybody remembered, and they start using the name to refer to that terrace ever since.

Despite the usage of Spion Kop in various media to refer to terraces in various stadia throughout Britain, Anfield is the first stadium whose terrace is officially named Spion Kop. In 1928, when stadium management upgraded the terrace and installed a new set of roof, the name ‘Spion Kop’ was officially taken in. Although the subject is debatable, most people are sure about the fact that Anfield’s Spion Kop is the only terrace officially named with the jargon. All those facts aside, Spion Kop has always been – and will always be – a symbol of fans’ support for Liverpool F.C. for many years.

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