The song is also sung at association football clubs around the world, where it is performed by a massed chorus of supporters on match day; this tradition developed at Liverpool F.C.

[1] The song is sung by its supporters before the start of each home game at Anfield with the Gerry and the Pacemakers version being played over the public address system.

[1][7][8] In 2013, the 50th anniversary of the song being sung on the Kop, Simon Hart of The Independent wrote, Five decades on, the pre-match, scarfs-raised, sing-it-loud ritual is as much a part of Liverpool's fabric as their red shirts, its words written in wrought iron on the gates of their stadium.

[1]According to former player Tommy Smith, lead vocalist Gerry Marsden presented Liverpool manager Bill Shankly with a recording of his forthcoming cover single during a pre-season coach trip in the summer of 1963.

... Football writers from the local newspapers were travelling with our party and, thirsty for a story of any kind between games, filed copy back to their editors to the effect that we had adopted Gerry Marsden's forthcoming single as the club song.

A mass of 40,000 people became one force behind their team.In his commentary on the memorial service following the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, Peter Jones recited the lyrics, which were then sung by a cathedral choir.

Aretha Franklin's recording of the song from her 1971 live album Amazing Grace was played by BBC Radio 1 DJ and Liverpool fan John Peel in his first show following the disaster.

[17] Reflecting on 60 years of "You'll Never Walk Alone" as the club's anthem, in 2023 Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp stated, "Simple but powerful lyrics, a real message.

In ice hockey, the song has been adopted by German Deutsche Eishockey Liga side Krefeld Pinguine and Croatian Medveščak Zagreb.

FSV Mainz 05 in the German Bundesliga, supporters of both teams performed the song to commemorate a Dortmund fan who died from a cardiac arrest in the stands during the game.

The song was performed by charity supergroup the Crowd, which featured Gerry Marsden, Paul McCartney and others, and spent two weeks at number one in the UK and Ireland in June 1985.

[53] Mumford's version was originally recorded for the Apple TV+ sports comedy-drama Ted Lasso; it appears in the first-season finale, "The Hope That Kills You" in 2020.

Within 24 hours,[60] the performance was recorded, and made into a digital single featuring the NHS Voices of Care Choir, and Moore's spoken words.

[62] On April 19, 2020, the song went straight to number one in the United Kingdom's "The EE Official Big Top 40" chart, selling almost 36,000 copies in its first 48 hours.