Non-league football
Non-League football refers to the area in English football below the professional divisions of the Premier League and the English Football League , i.e. from the fifth division (today: Conference National ) downwards. Before 1992 - before the introduction of the Premier League - the term "non-league" primarily delimited the section below the Football League Association, which at that time still housed all the top clubs in English professional football. All clubs that did not play in the Football League were therefore "non-league clubs".
Discussion of the term
The word “league” in “non-league football” has been referring to the “football league” since its inception and not generally to an organized league competition - most non-league clubs play against each other in leagues. There are diverse divisions below the Football League, some of which, such as the Northern League, are nearly as old as the Football League itself. The divisions on the seven highest levels below the Football League are also administered by the English Football Association ( FA ) in the so-called National League System (NLS). The NLS comprises over 50 different leagues, many of which are still divided into several divisions.
Before 1987, there was no automatic exchange of promotion and relegation rules between the Football League and the non-league divisions. The clubs that had finished a season in the lowest places in the Football League had to apply for their re-entry into the association (“apply for re-election”) and the approval of this request was in most cases just a formality. Therefore, the Football League system was very static for many years and the non-league clubs had almost no chance of advancing to professional football.
In 1987, for the first time, a new promotion and relegation rule between the lowest football league and the highest non-league league took effect - provided that the best non-league club had the general financial requirements and had the requirements of the A stadium that was sufficient for professional football. At the end of the 1986/87 season, Lincoln City was the first club to lose its membership in the Football League through this innovation, and Scarborough FC was the first non-league club to be included in the Football League Association. Since 2003, two clubs, the champions and the play-off winners, have been able to move up from the Football Conference at the end of the season.
A common misunderstanding is that non-league football is assigned the rating of amateur football because of its classification below the Football League. However, there is no strict demarcation from professional football and many clubs within the Football Conference work under professional or at least semi-professional conditions.
"Non-League" in other countries
The term "Non-League" is also common in Scotland and is used for football below the top four divisions. Non-league football is divided into junior leagues and senior leagues, although the “junior” designation has grown over time and does not generally mean that the clubs compete in the junior leagues with youth teams and young players.
The term non-league is not uncommon in other European countries either.
Importance in women's football
In English women's football, the term non-league is used for all the clubs that operate below the two regional divisions of the FA Women's Premier League .
See also
In the article on the football league system in England , the division of current non-league football under the Premier League and the Football League can be read.