This is total tripe!!  A bunch of brainwaahed, Glasweigian, nutters running down Goodison Rd does not prove a Catholic bias at EFC. Or, some loons in the Kop on a derby day.   Neither does Mr Baxter being a Catholic.  I doubt he knocked on the doors of catholic homes and goaded them to EFC.  Most people would not have heard of him.  The EFC committee was predominately Liberal and Houlding Tory being councillor.  Many of the EFC committee were in temperance societies, Houlding was a brewer and they viewed he wanted to sell his ales at Anfield - he wanted sole refreshments rights.  Houlding insisted the teams changed at his Sandon pub and walk to the ground.  Holding made money from this in sales. 

The split at EFC creating Liverpool was purely principles.  No religion at all.  Everton wanted a community based club with a spread of shares. Houlding wanted a few rich owners holding most of the shares - the corporate model which is still the same today.  Everton on going to Goodison Park issued 5,000 shares for the fans. EFC were the first to have a shareholders association and the meets are always in the Liverpool Echo.  Everton put the profits back into the club for the benefit of the fans, and by the 1930s had 4 double-decked stands, while Anfield was primitive in comparison because the owners creamed off - despite both clubs having about the same sized fanbase.  Anfield was only uprated in 1963 with the Kemlyn Rd stand, the rest being 1906 at the latest - two years later EFC were hosting a world cup semi-final, the difference was so marked.

From Leeds university study. Link on the history site. Stored at Cambridge university.

Leeds University Study:-

Both of the city’s major clubs share a common origin. An Everton football club was established as a small chapel team in 1878, it became a founder member of the Football League in 1888, first won the championship in 1890-91, and at that time played its home matches at Anfield. By the early 1890s, however, the club was in serious difficulties, experiencing a traumatic internal schism that tore through its management and ownership and led to the creation of a second club.

The club’s main financial backer was Houlding, a prominent brewer and Tory politician but, amidst allegations of financial exploitation, in 1892 the majority of the club’s members abandoned the Anfield site, removed the club from Houlding’s control and set out for Goodison – in retaliation, Houlding incorporated a new club, Liverpool F.C, based at Anfield.

The story of the schism provides an important illustration of how far a successful professional football organization had become integrated into community identity and politics by the late Victorian period. In an early manifestation of today’s frictions between commercial backers and fans, the research shows that the intensity of the wrangling over the governance and ownership of the club bore witness to the importance, even at that early date, of perceptions of the club as a worthy political prize, as a means by which wealthy individuals could gain influence and prestige.

The historical dispute at Everton also emphasises significant contemporary perceptions of the role an iconic football club could play in moulding social behaviour. The owners and directors of the new Everton F.C. believed such an important social institution could be a bastion of ‘purity’, a model of Christian sobriety, of Nonconformist, Liberal ideals. In governance terms they sought to carry over the original ideal of a more democratic ‘members’ club’ into the era of incorporation.

Houlding, too, was well aware of the importance of a successful football club for community identity and involvement, but he believed a corporate structure based on a ‘modern’ business model (wherein investors had control and could expect a reasonable rate of return) was more appropriate. His behaviour at Everton F.C., and his subsequent success in establishing Liverpool F.C., reveal his attempts to weld together politics and sport in such a way as to wield influence in both, to help secure the support base for his brand of ‘Tory Democracy’.

However, the difficulties he encountered at Everton F.C. also show the strength of opposing political perceptions. The alternative Liberal vision of the sober artisan football supporter, closely involved in the affairs of his club through membership and diverse shareholdings, and wary of autocratic manipulations from the drinks trade, proved capable of wrenching Everton F.C. from Houlding’s control even if, after only a short time, he was able to establish a successful rival club.

Another feature of the schism was that it occurred within Protestant ranks for, despite the prominence often assigned to the role of sectarianism in Liverpool politics – and despite the political importance of Irish Home