By Tom Ryan

A big problem for non-league clubs is money. With football having a high number of participants, many would have thought it would be easy to run and maintain a football club. At non-league level this is not the case, with there being many challenges that a club has to face.

Many of these teams consist of mainly amateur players with only the higher tier teams having the luxury of semi-professional players. This adds pressure on teams to be able to field a full squad on matchdays, as football is not amateur players main priority, with families and jobs coming first.

Non-league clubs have been folding at an alarming rate with 3,000 clubs folding between the years of 2007 and 2012 with many more since. Many initiatives have been brought in at grassroots level in order to lower the number of teams folding, such as rolling substitutions. Many players that leave non-league football fill the void with alternative types of football such as five-a-side and futsal, with both versions increasing in popularity.

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Unlike their professional counterparts, non-league clubs don’t have a bottomless pit of money or multi-million pound sponsorship deals. This then restricts the clubs when it comes to signing players and getting new facilities. Salford City is one club that doesn’t have the restrictions of a non-league club as they were recently bought by members of Manchester United’s class of ’92.

On the other hand, Salford’s local rivals FC United of Manchester (FCUM) are exploring the possibility of applying for an overdraft. This is due to the financial position that the club is currently in. One club that recently folded was Norton United; they folded at the end of the 2014-15 season as they were unable to pay rent of up to £20,000 for their ground on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent.

Clubs in England’s professional divisions can fly to an away game with ease, but this isn’t the case for non-league clubs. Many non-league clubs turn down promotions in order to keep travel costs to a minimum and to cause less hassle for players who make their own way to games. Some divisions are split into northern and southern but this can cause clubs to still be travelling very long distances.

One club that has to do excessive travelling is Gloucester City, who plies their trade in the National League North, even though they’re based in the South West of England. The furthest away game for Gloucester is against Darlington 1883 which is roughly 223 miles away. For any non-league club, that much travel for an away game is very costly and an understandable reason for some clubs refusing promotion, even when they have earned the right to go up to the next division.

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Non-league clubs also face a battle against professional clubs for young players. Whilst both have academies with the aim to prepare the next generation to be footballers, many of the younger players jump at the chance of joining the youth teams of a professional club. This is due to the stature of the first team that they would be fighting to play for. This gives non-league teams a tough task when building for the future, as many of the top talents are selected by top tier clubs, due to them having the money and the facilities to attract such talented young prospects.