A couple of months ago a Brazilian sports channel called SporTV came into The NLP headquarters to film a short documentary about how the paper is put together and to find out more about Non-League football.
SporTV is the most watched sports channel in Brazil, effectively their version of Sky Sports – we were a little apprehensive about what they might have been saying about us in Portuguese!
When the video came out last month, along with an accompanying article, it was clear they were amazed about the structure of Non-League with the vast amount of leagues and clubs it contains.
It was eye-opening reading (or rather translating!) the comments on social media from their followers about our football pyramid.
One of the most up-voted replies read: “And there are still people who think that Brazil is the country of football.”
As we know, the Non-League pyramid is in the process of being restructured by The FA and while at the moment the temporary changes have made the play-offs at Step 3 and 4 not ideal, in the end it will be for the better.
Contrary to what some people may think, The FA do care about Non-League football, as we have experienced first-hand working closely with the organisation through the paper.
Perhaps because we have always been used to the structure of Non-League, we take it for granted. Another comment said: “Organization defines the English League. Everything in its place. The result is excellence.”
When you see crowds of 1,628 at Step 5, eight tiers below the Premier League, as Worksop Town had last weekend for their top-of-the-table clash with Penistone, it is something to be proud of.
We’ve had several messages from Brazilians wanting to know more about the leagues and if they can buy the paper – Non-League is only getting bigger and better!
