For more than four decades, the National League has occupied a unique position within the English football pyramid. Created in 1979 as The Football Conference to administer 20 semi-professional clubs, it now oversees 72 clubs across three divisions, including the National League North and South, many of which operate as full-time professional organisations with significant turnovers, staff numbers and community responsibilities.
Yet serious questions are increasingly being asked about whether the League’s current structure remains suitable for the modern game.
At the heart of the debate is the argument that the National League has become an expensive, unnecessary and inefficient layer between the English Football League (EFL) and the wider non-league pyramid. Some critics and this author argue that many of the League’s functions — including rule-making, financial oversight, tv rights and sponsorship negotiation — duplicate systems already operated more effectively within the EFL.
The EFL itself evolved from the old Football League structure that administered 92 clubs prior to the formation of the Premier League in 1992. Since then, the EFL has managed 72 clubs across three divisions. Expanding it back to the previous four-division structure with 96 clubs, by converting the top division of the National League into League 3 of the EFL, would represent a logical evolution of the professional pyramid.
Concerns regarding the quality of National League governance have also intensified in recent years, particularly following controversies during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2020, the National League faced strong criticism for failing to establish a dedicated, independant crisis committee despite recommendations from independent board members. When football resumed behind closed doors later that year, clubs were ordered to continue operating despite severe reductions in matchday income and those who refused for good reason were fined.
Subsequent disputes centred on the distribution of public funding intended to offset lost gate receipts. A group of clubs alleged that the league ignored advice from government officials, clubs and even its own financial controller in order to put in place a distribution model that disproportionately benefited clubs represented on the National League board. The controversy, explored in the 2022 documentary Gate Money, ultimately contributed to the resignations of the league chairman, chief executive and several board members.
Under pressure from clubs at the time, the National League later agreed to an independent inquiry to be chaired by David Bernstein. According to Gate Money the inquiry was highly critical of the League. It concluded that distributions should simply have been allocated according to lost attendance revenue on a club-by-club basis. The report was never formally published and its recommendations were kept secret. No apology was ever forthcoming from the League and the FA refused to hold an investigation.
Following these events further discontent among clubs surfaced in May 2021, when member clubs called an Extraordinary General Meeting to consider a motion of no confidence in the League board and chairman. Roughly half of the 72 clubs voted in favour of the motion but those clubs in the National League North and South, who were most critical of the League board, were denied voting rights in the league rules, allowing the board to survive the challenge but with huge embarrassment.
For many National League clubs that episode reinforced long-standing concerns over representation and governance imbalance. It remains the case today that National League North and South clubs lack meaningful influence despite collectively forming the majority of the league’s membership. They would be better off in a new structure at the pinnacle of the non-league game, not as the poor relations in the National League family.
Other flashpoints have included the league’s incompetent handling of a meeting with government regarding Covid loan funding and its reluctance and inability to support its many clubs using artificial playing surfaces.
Although the league was ultimately required by the The Football Association to permit 3G pitches in 2014, it has never actively supported clubs wishing to use synthetic surfaces to improve revenues and community structures. In particular the League bowed to EFL pressure to accept rules whereby any club winning promotion to EFL but subsequently refusing to switch to a natural surface, would face a double relegation.
Meanwhile, broader strategic issues remain unresolved.
Despite repeated campaigns from National League clubs for three promotion places into the EFL, little progress has been achieved. It has been clear for years that the National League is under-resourced, under-respected and lacking in sufficient leverage in negotiations with the EFL. Incorporating the top division of the National League into the EFL as League 3 would resolve this issue instantly.
Financial sustainability is another recurring concern. National League clubs currently receive central distributions of roughly £90,000 per season, while National League North and South clubs receive approximately £30,000. These amounts are negligible in the context of modern operating costs, rising wages and infrastructure requirements but the League has no teeth in arguing for a greater share of the pie. There is no prize money either for achieving play-off places. Indeed qualifying for the play-offs in the National League can leave a club severely out of pocket once operational costs and revenue-sharing arrangements are taken into account..
The arrival of the proposed Independent Football Regulator has further sharpened the debate. Much-needed, logical reforms to the structure of the pyramid are not in the Regulator’s remit and the FA seems to have given up the ghost on such matters. Furthermore the regulator’s remit extends only as far as Step 5 of the pyramid — covering National League top division clubs but excluding those in National League North and South. That effectively establishes a new dividing line between the professional and semi-professional game.
Taken together, these issues have prompted growing calls for structural reform. The most coherent long-term solution would be to abolish the National League entirely, incorporate its top division into the EFL as a new League 3, and return governance responsibility for National League North and South, the top divisions of non-league football, to the existing regional league structures of the Northern Premier League, Southern League and Isthmian League. It is high time for a reboot
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Former Hereford United manager Graham Turner is awaiting a new hip.
