What’s happening in the non-league division with a seven-horse title race
No Premier League side has laid a glove on Liverpool as they cruise toward what looks certain to be the club’s 20th league title. This season’s title ‘race’ has been anything but; Manchester City whimpered out in December, Chelsea broke into a sprint before tripping on their shoelaces, and not even a corner-kick cheat code could keep Arsenal on the Reds’ heels.
You have to look further down the football pyramid to find England’s most exciting battle for top spot. And I’m not talking about the Championship, as Leeds United, Sheffield United, and Burnley scrap for automatic promotion with just two points separating the top three and eight games remaining.
Welcome to the National League South, England’s sixth tier, where seven points separate first and seventh in a seven-horse race.
(Current National League South table, via Flashscore)
Last Saturday, 22nd-placed Welling United dramatically halted Worthing’s five-game winning streak. This upset has kept the title race well and truly open, and with six head-to-head fixtures still to come between teams in the top seven, the standings are likely to keep shifting right down to the wire.
Exploring the National League
The thrilling narrative of the title race is accentuated by the quality of football on show, thanks to the enhanced facilities and pitches throughout the National League in recent years. The National League refers to tier five of the football pyramid, which was formerly known as the Conference National, but also includes the North and South divisions, both in tier six.
From exciting youth prospects to ex-Premier League pros, the National League South has become a fertile ground for a vast pool of players trained by elite coaches and teams to thrive.
Take Oli Lynch and Max Merrick, on loan at Hemel Hempstead and Hampton & Richmond from Luton Town and Chelsea U21, respectively. Meanwhile, Torquay United’s Dean Moxey, aged 39, has 100 appearances for Crystal Palace – including 20 in the Premier League.
The league even features players with international caps, like Boreham Wood’s Ghanaian international Kwesi Appiah. Hemel Hempstead’s George Williams was part of the Wales squad that stormed to the 2016 Euros semi-finals.
What makes this league so special is how well-supported the clubs are, with some boasting 9,000-seater stadiums and 5,000-strong crowds. To put this into perspective, Torquay, the division’s best-supported side, draws higher average attendances than five clubs in each of France and Italy’s second divisions, five clubs in the Turkish Super Lig, and seven clubs in the Saudi Pro League.
The National League South’s remarkable support contributes to the spectacle of this season’s title race, given how much promotion means to thousands of people in their communities.
Only the champions of the National League, including North and South divisions, earn automatic promotion, leaving the second to seventh-placed sides to battle an arduous playoff process. The second and third-placed clubs are awarded a direct semifinal berth, while the fourth-placed team hosts seventh, and fifth plays sixth in two single-leg quarter-finals, before the victors face off in a semi-final. Then, the two semi-final winners meet in the playoff final for the second promotion spot.
3UP campaign: fighting for fairness
Since 2003, only two clubs per season have been promoted from the National League to the English Football League (EFL) — a system non-league sides believe heavily favours the EFL. In response, all 72 National League clubs backed the 3UP campaign, signing a joint letter to the EFL in February to request a vote on increasing the number of promotion places from two to three.
Mark Ives, National League chief executive, said: “We have a pyramid that is the envy of countries worldwide because you can go from the very bottom to the top, purely on sporting merit. But there is a blockage in the jump between National League and EFL. We want a fairer system.”
Ben Hudson, chairman of Hampton & Richmond and member of the National League board, holds that an extra promotion place would create an invaluable aspiration for clubs and supporters. Hudson told the Sports Gazette: “Local football teams are the life and soul of local communities. Progression and competition are at the heart of what makes football great.
“Clubs would be able to move upwards and downwards more freely,” he added. “It seems wild that there’s a two-club limit into the EFL system considering the success of those who have made it through beforehand.”
Opening up a third promotion spot would increase the chances of more underdog stories like Luton Town and AFC Wimbledon climbing the ranks through non-league to become established names in the top four divisions.
An EFL spokesperson told Sky Sports News that the league recognises the strength of the pyramid and is willing to consider changes to promotion and relegation.
A third promotion spot wouldn’t just reward the league’s best-performing teams; it would ensure a fairer, more competitive football pyramid. The National League has proven it deserves greater representation at the top levels of English football.
As the 3UP campaign gains momentum, the question is no longer if change is needed, but how long the EFL can ignore the calls for reform.
