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Friday, October 09, 2015

Daily Mirror Promotes Non-League Day


Daily Mirror journalist Aaron Flanagan has put forward various reasons to go and support a non-league club tomorrow. Hereford FC are at home in the Midland Premier League and it only costs £8 for an adult ticket.

The past 10 years has seen the introduction of the ‘phoenix club’ into the football pyramid – and it has proven to bring a host of supporters into the local game.

AFC Wimbledon were one of the first clubs to reform in the lower echelons, but were closely followed by the likes of FC United, FC Halifax Town, Chester FC, AFC Rushden and Diamonds and many, many more.

Big clubs with huge fan bases currently occupy a host of places in the Football League. Along with them, there are the likes of Class of ’92-owned Salford City, former Football League giants Stockport County and a host of established non-league sides - such as Boston United, Ebbsfleet United and Wealdstone - playing in the lower leagues. You want some? You don’t have to look far to find a ‘big’ club to follow on the cheap.

This year Fans For Diversity took a different tack to promote NLD and visited four non-league grounds - Boreham Wood, Aldershot, Sheffield FC and Bromsgrove Sporting - in the space of 48 hours.
“We wanted to do something different to last season - to see the stories behind the clubs, walk into the dressing rooms, meet the volunteers who keep these clubs going, to really get that sense of what each club is about,” explains Anwar Uddin, FSF Diversity and Campaigns Manager.
“It’s not always glamorous but without supporters helping these clubs they often wouldn’t exist. We really wanted to explore that and promote the Fans For Diversity campaign at the same time. Getting out there, meeting people, making contacts and promoting the FSF all in one go.”
Joining Anwar on-the-road were Football Exclusive, who do highlights packages for non-league clubs, helping clubs raise funds and provide fans with footage of their club, and Tom Taylor from Kick It Out.  
Anwar continues: “Over two days we visited Boreham Wood, Aldershot, Sheffield FC and Bromsgrove Sporting.  At Boreham Wood we saw a training session and met the manager, officials, and players – many of them are my ex-teammates! [Editor's note: Anwar was an ex-pro and made 300+ senior appearances] You really get a feeling for how important Non-League Day is to them.
“It was then on to Aldershot where Sky Sports came along and did some filming as we met with fans and the local Nepalese community who are literally on the club’s doorstep. Really close by. That’s because many Gurkhas who came over to Britain were housed in Aldershot and the club are keen to tap into that.
“Fans For Diversity has helped that, got involved with fan groups, and Aldershot’s support has been fantastic. It’s a vocal crowd and a great atmosphere and of course they now have the Fans For Diversity Stand, which is brilliant.
“On Tuesday morning we visited Sheffield FC – the world’s oldest club - where Chris Dolby, an ex-Rotherham player, now leads the Foundation. We had a workshop at Sheffield Hallam University with a panel discussion. There were plenty students in attendance and we talked about the FSF’s work on safe standing and stuff – they loved it, really into the activism side which is great.
“It was then onto Bromsgrove Sporting, which is just south of Birmingham, for a meeting with the club’s staff and fans. They’re at step six of the football pyramid but get 300 fans so they really rely on local support with fans volunteering on matchdays.
“We did a talk with schoolkids in the club’s dressing room, looking at Fans For Diversity. They were 13 to 15-year-olds and most supported Villa, Birmingham City, or West Brom, but it was good to let them know that other clubs are there too. There’s a local team on their doorstep and the club agreed to let any kids with Fans For Diversity t-shirts (that we gave out) in for free.
“It was just great to see so many people so dedicated to their own clubs though. Many of these clubs just wouldn’t exist without their fans committing their own time to the cause.”
Fans For Diversity (try this link for mobile devices):
- See more at: http://www.fsf.org.uk/latest-news/view/four-clubs-in-48hrs-fsf-and-kio-get-behind-non-league-day#sthash.YmQs76nK.dpuf
This year Fans For Diversity took a different tack to promote NLD and visited four non-league grounds - Boreham Wood, Aldershot, Sheffield FC and Bromsgrove Sporting - in the space of 48 hours.
“We wanted to do something different to last season - to see the stories behind the clubs, walk into the dressing rooms, meet the volunteers who keep these clubs going, to really get that sense of what each club is about,” explains Anwar Uddin, FSF Diversity and Campaigns Manager.
“It’s not always glamorous but without supporters helping these clubs they often wouldn’t exist. We really wanted to explore that and promote the Fans For Diversity campaign at the same time. Getting out there, meeting people, making contacts and promoting the FSF all in one go.”
Joining Anwar on-the-road were Football Exclusive, who do highlights packages for non-league clubs, helping clubs raise funds and provide fans with footage of their club, and Tom Taylor from Kick It Out.  
Anwar continues: “Over two days we visited Boreham Wood, Aldershot, Sheffield FC and Bromsgrove Sporting.  At Boreham Wood we saw a training session and met the manager, officials, and players – many of them are my ex-teammates! [Editor's note: Anwar was an ex-pro and made 300+ senior appearances] You really get a feeling for how important Non-League Day is to them.
“It was then on to Aldershot where Sky Sports came along and did some filming as we met with fans and the local Nepalese community who are literally on the club’s doorstep. Really close by. That’s because many Gurkhas who came over to Britain were housed in Aldershot and the club are keen to tap into that.
“Fans For Diversity has helped that, got involved with fan groups, and Aldershot’s support has been fantastic. It’s a vocal crowd and a great atmosphere and of course they now have the Fans For Diversity Stand, which is brilliant.
“On Tuesday morning we visited Sheffield FC – the world’s oldest club - where Chris Dolby, an ex-Rotherham player, now leads the Foundation. We had a workshop at Sheffield Hallam University with a panel discussion. There were plenty students in attendance and we talked about the FSF’s work on safe standing and stuff – they loved it, really into the activism side which is great.
“It was then onto Bromsgrove Sporting, which is just south of Birmingham, for a meeting with the club’s staff and fans. They’re at step six of the football pyramid but get 300 fans so they really rely on local support with fans volunteering on matchdays.
“We did a talk with schoolkids in the club’s dressing room, looking at Fans For Diversity. They were 13 to 15-year-olds and most supported Villa, Birmingham City, or West Brom, but it was good to let them know that other clubs are there too. There’s a local team on their doorstep and the club agreed to let any kids with Fans For Diversity t-shirts (that we gave out) in for free.
“It was just great to see so many people so dedicated to their own clubs though. Many of these clubs just wouldn’t exist without their fans committing their own time to the cause.”
Fans For Diversity (try this link for mobile devices):
- See more at: http://www.fsf.org.uk/latest-news/view/four-clubs-in-48hrs-fsf-and-kio-get-behind-non-league-day#sthash.YmQs76nK.dpuf
The international break is upon us and the whole nation has joined in tandem to let out an almighty sigh. Armchair fans have seen the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United whisked off from primetime television and replaced by Estonia, Lithuania and Andorra. Thrilling… or not. But fear not, this international break brings us the annual ‘Non-League Day’, encouraging you to support your local team and try something slightly different while the Premier League’s top stars are swanning around on their international tours

Your local team will be opening their doors to you, the top flight football fan, in a bid to show off what has become their pride and joy.

Officials have hastily been agreeing on special offers to lure you down to their clubs, offering you one of the most affordable and enjoying football experience possible.

But why should you try non-league football this weekend? Aaron Flanagan, Mirror Football’s resident borderline-obsessive lower-league ombudsman, will try to sell it to you

Last weekend, fans of all 20 Premier League clubs protested outside of each Premier League game in a bid to convince teams to introduce new regulations of ticket prices. This weekend, you can experience live football – and arguable enjoy a better match-day experience – when you pay peanuts to watch a game. If non-league was not already cheap enough, you can benefit from a host of special offers being put on by most non-league clubs to lure you to their ground. Most are offering discounted or even free admission for Premier League and Football League season ticket holders. In probably the kindest act we have seen so far, the fast-becoming ‘famous’ Clapton FC Ultras are really pushing the boat out. If you are a pensioner, unemployed, a refugee, asylum-seeker or on benefits, they will pay for you to watch the match. Great effort.

Non-league football is weird and wacky – and that starts with the football grounds where the matches are played. Every stadium from the National League right down to the North West Counties League has its own characteristics, often carried through with the club right from the day they were formed. Take Hallam FC, for example, who play in Sheffield at the world’s oldest football ground. Their pitch is on one of the most significant slopes you could ever imagine football to be played on. Or sometimes it is the little things that catch your attention, like how Ramsbottom United of the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League insist of serving your half-time brew in a mug, before their trusty volunteers walk around the ground with a collection basket. There is a unique quirky element to most non-league grounds – making no match-day experience the same.

There are hundreds and hundreds of semi-professional clubs up and down the country and barely any of them have full-time staff. The football pyramid’s foundations are held in place by the band of volunteers who dedicate their lives to ensuring that each and every football club makes it from one Saturday to the next without a hitch. They mow the pitch, sweep the changing rooms, wash the kits, do the paperwork, serve behind the bar, make the pies and so much more. These people are volunteers. They are the people who Non-League Day should be about. The people who ensure there is football to be watched on a week-to –week basis. What they do on a weekly basis is truly special.

If you have never even considered watching a non-league match before, then you will be pleasantly surprised by the standard of the football. Yes, like in every division, there is the odd hoof-ball team, but in the main these teams are made up of quality players that have a football upbringing. Non-league is no longer like the Sunday League that some people imagine it to be. A host of non-league players have played for professional clubs in the past and the standard of the pitches largely allows them to play good football on them. But players do make mistakes on the pitch which gives you increasing opportunities to see goals. And let’s be honest, we all like watching goals, don’t we?

Premier League clubs have been doing all they can in recent years to improve the matchday experience for supporters. For example, Manchester City have introduced the ‘City Square’ for supporters and play live music and entertainment in the build-up to matches. But when you enter the ground, every experience is very much the same. Sit in the same seat and watch the match without having much room to manoeuvre around the ground. At non-league matches, you are welcome into the ground with open arms, allowed to venture around and are treated like valued visitors to the football club and not like a flock of sheep.

You might even get lucky and be allowed to enjoy a pint while watching on the terraces, as clubs relax rules to ensure that all fans have the most enjoyable match-day experience possible. Oh, and the odds of winning of bottle of whiskey in the raffle are much more in your favour.

“Over two days we visited Boreham Wood, Aldershot, Sheffield FC and Bromsgrove Sporting.  At Boreham Wood we saw a training session and met the manager, officials, and players – many of them are my ex-teammates! [Editor's note: Anwar was an ex-pro and made 300+ senior appearances] You really get a feeling for how important Non-League Day is to them.
“It was then on to Aldershot where Sky Sports came along and did some filming as we met with fans and the local Nepalese community who are literally on the club’s doorstep. Really close by. That’s because many Gurkhas who came over to Britain were housed in Aldershot and the club are keen to tap into that.
- See more at: http://www.fsf.org.uk/latest-news/view/four-clubs-in-48hrs-fsf-and-kio-get-behind-non-league-day#sthash.YmQs76nK.dpuf
This year Fans For Diversity took a different tack to promote NLD and visited four non-league grounds - Boreham Wood, Aldershot, Sheffield FC and Bromsgrove Sporting - in the space of 48 hours.
“We wanted to do something different to last season - to see the stories behind the clubs, walk into the dressing rooms, meet the volunteers who keep these clubs going, to really get that sense of what each club is about,” explains Anwar Uddin, FSF Diversity and Campaigns Manager.
“It’s not always glamorous but without supporters helping these clubs they often wouldn’t exist. We really wanted to explore that and promote the Fans For Diversity campaign at the same time. Getting out there, meeting people, making contacts and promoting the FSF all in one go.”
Joining Anwar on-the-road were Football Exclusive, who do highlights packages for non-league clubs, helping clubs raise funds and provide fans with footage of their club, and Tom Taylor from Kick It Out.  
Anwar continues: “Over two days we visited Boreham Wood, Aldershot, Sheffield FC and Bromsgrove Sporting.  At Boreham Wood we saw a training session and met the manager, officials, and players – many of them are my ex-teammates! [Editor's note: Anwar was an ex-pro and made 300+ senior appearances] You really get a feeling for how important Non-League Day is to them.
“It was then on to Aldershot where Sky Sports came along and did some filming as we met with fans and the local Nepalese community who are literally on the club’s doorstep. Really close by. That’s because many Gurkhas who came over to Britain were housed in Aldershot and the club are keen to tap into that.
“Fans For Diversity has helped that, got involved with fan groups, and Aldershot’s support has been fantastic. It’s a vocal crowd and a great atmosphere and of course they now have the Fans For Diversity Stand, which is brilliant.
“On Tuesday morning we visited Sheffield FC – the world’s oldest club - where Chris Dolby, an ex-Rotherham player, now leads the Foundation. We had a workshop at Sheffield Hallam University with a panel discussion. There were plenty students in attendance and we talked about the FSF’s work on safe standing and stuff – they loved it, really into the activism side which is great.
“It was then onto Bromsgrove Sporting, which is just south of Birmingham, for a meeting with the club’s staff and fans. They’re at step six of the football pyramid but get 300 fans so they really rely on local support with fans volunteering on matchdays.
“We did a talk with schoolkids in the club’s dressing room, looking at Fans For Diversity. They were 13 to 15-year-olds and most supported Villa, Birmingham City, or West Brom, but it was good to let them know that other clubs are there too. There’s a local team on their doorstep and the club agreed to let any kids with Fans For Diversity t-shirts (that we gave out) in for free.
“It was just great to see so many people so dedicated to their own clubs though. Many of these clubs just wouldn’t exist without their fans committing their own time to the cause.”
Fans For Diversity (try this link for mobile devices):
- See more at: http://www.fsf.org.uk/latest-news/view/four-clubs-in-48hrs-fsf-and-kio-get-behind-non-league-day#sthash.YmQs76nK.dpuf
FSF Diversity and Campaigns Manager.
FSF Diversity and Campaigns Manager.
FSF Diversity and Campaigns Manager.