Non-League Football
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Non-League football describes
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for
football in England Association football is the most popular sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of ...
, where it is specifically used to describe all football played at levels below those of the
Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...
(20 clubs) and the three divisions of the
English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engl ...
(EFL; 72 clubs). Currently, a non-League team would be any club playing in the
National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...
or below that level. Typically, non-League clubs are either
semi-professional Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a consid ...
or
amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...
in status, although the majority of clubs in the National League are fully
professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...
, some of which are former EFL clubs who have suffered
relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...
. The term ''non-League'' was commonly used in England long before the creation of the Premier League in 1992, prior to which the top
football clubs in England Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ca ...
all belonged to
The Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...
(from 2016, the EFL); at this time, the Football League was commonly referred to as simply "the League" and its clubs were "League clubs", so all clubs which were not members of the Football League were therefore 'non-League' clubs. Since 1992, the term "non-League" has come to mean clubs at a lower level than the Football League, as the original definition of being outside the Football League would include Premier League clubs.


Non-League football in England


English Football League

The "League" (with a capital 'L') in "non-League football" refers specifically to the English Football League, rather than leagues in general — "non-League" clubs play most of their football within league competitions. There are many leagues below the level of the EFL, and some, such as the Northern League, are almost as old as the EFL itself. The most senior of these leagues are loosely organised by
The Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the ...
, the sport's governing body in England, into a National League System (NLS). The NLS has six levels or ''steps'', and includes over 18 separate leagues, many with more than one division. Prior to the 1986–87 season, there was no automatic promotion and relegation between The Football League and the leagues of non-League football for nearly a hundred years. Instead, the process of re-election existed; at the end of each season, the bottom clubs of the EFL were required to re-apply for membership, whilst ambitious non-League clubs put themselves up as candidates for admittance against them. All member clubs of the Football League then voted for their choice. In most cases this was a mere formality; member clubs would typically vote for other existing members and the system ensured that Football League membership remained relatively static, with non-League clubs having very little chance of joining. Indeed, since the process had begun, only thirteen non-League clubs had ever achieved enough votes to win election as a member of the Football League. However, a major change came in 1986 when automatic promotion and relegation of one club between the League and the
Football Conference The National League (named Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons) is an association football league in England consisting of three divisions, the National League, National League North, and National League South. It was called the ...
, the top league in non-League football, was introduced, subject to the eligible club meeting the required facility and financial standards.
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...
became the first non-League club to win automatic promotion to the League, and Lincoln City became the first League club to be relegated to the ranks of non-League football. Since the 2002–03 season, two clubs from the Conference, now National League (the champions and the winners of a play-off) have been promoted at the end of each season. The entire
English football league system The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the Isl ...
includes the Premier League, the EFL, the NLS leagues, and any local leagues that have feeder relationships with an NLS league. Many non-League clubs enter the
FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
, where they hope to become "giant-killers" by progressing from the qualifying rounds, and first and second rounds proper, to meet and beat opposition from the Premier League or
EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...
. Since the end of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, ten non-League clubs have reached the Fifth Round of the FA Cup, and only one (Lincoln City in 2016–17 season) reached the quarter-final stage. The only non-League team to have won the competition since The Football League started is
Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...
in 1901, although at that time the League had only two divisions, consisting almost entirely of Northern and Midland clubs. The leading clubs in the
South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...
played in the
Southern Football League The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English fo ...
, which was of a comparable standard to the League clubs. From its inaugural match in 1908 until 1912, the FA Charity Shield was contested between the champions of the League and the Southern Football League.


The FA Trophy and FA Vase

The Football Association Challenge Trophy was introduced in 1969 to offer semi-professional non-League clubs a realistic chance of winning an FA competition. Amateur clubs could enter the FA Amateur Cup until 1974 when the Football Association abolished the distinction between professionals and amateurs. The Amateur Cup was replaced by the
FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footbal ...
in 1974 which is currently contested by clubs at Step 5 of the NLS and below while the Trophy is contested by clubs at Steps 1–4.


League system


Women's football

In women's football, the ''non-League'' term is used for those clubs in the divisions below the FA Women's Premier League's two regional second divisions.


Non-League football in other countries


Germany

In Germany, there is a similar term, ''unterklassig'' (literally "under-class"), which usually refers to regional leagues below the three national leagues 1. Bundesliga, 2. Bundesliga and 3. Liga. The highest level of regional leagues, called
Regionalliga The Regionalliga () is the fourth tier in the German football league system. Until 1974, it was the second tier in Germany. In 1994, it was introduced as the third tier. Upon the creation of the new nationwide 3. Liga in 2008, it became the four ...
, may or may not be included in the term.


Republic of Ireland

In the
Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...
, football outside the top two divisions consists of regional senior leagues based on which province the club comes from; although again these leagues are commonly referred to as 'non-League'.


Scotland

In
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, "non-League football" refers to leagues outside the top four divisions of the national Scottish Professional Football League. These consist of a number of regional senior leagues which are part of the Scottish football pyramid system.


Spain

Football below the professional level in Spain is commonly referred to as ''fútbol modesto'' (literally "modest football").


See also

*
England national football C team The England national football C team (previously known as the England National Game XI and the England Semi-Pro national team) is the football team that represents England at non-league level. Formed in 1979 as the England Non-League team, it fe ...


References


External links


Non League UK
{{DEFAULTSORT:Non-League Football