The trials and tribulations of being a non-league fan

In a transfer window that has seen the British transfer record broken and over £100,000,000 spent between just two clubs within a couple of hours, anyone who doesn’t follow football closely could be forgiven in thinking that financially, all is well in the game.

Throughout the whole of January, just under £225,000,000 was spent altogether in the Premier League. By contrast, throughout the non-leagues only £75,000 was spent; £50,000 by Luton Town and £25,000 by Darlington and they were both league clubs in the last few years.

Fans of the ‘big’ teams; the ones which are usually found battling it out over the Champions League places in the top flight are more than likely to know of the huge debts in the Premier League. However, they will never lose sleep over their clubs future and the thought of entering administration or even folding would never enter their heads, because they reason that these ‘big’ clubs are too big for that ever to happen.

They are probably right (with Wimbledon and Leeds being obvious exceptions), but not all fans are this lucky. The further down the football pyramid you travel, the shorter the bitten fingernails are and the faster the hearts beat. Not just during matches, for most non-league fans this is constant and unrelenting.

If things aren’t going well on the pitch, the manager can’t go out and spend millions, not even thousands on the transfer market searching for a ‘quick fix’ or a morale boosting big name transfer. If things aren’t going smoothly off the pitch, these clubs can’t just hike up ticket prices and risk alienating their small fan bases or ship out new branded merchandise around the world.

Following a team in any sport is often compared to being on a rollercoaster, there are ups and downs. However, for non-league fans, supporting their team is more like going off-road in the back of a pick-up truck without restraints; there are ups and when they are happening it’s amazing, weightless, nothing can stop the club going higher and higher and getting better and better but in the back of the mind there is always the knowledge that if and when the fall back down comes, it will be with a crash, it will be sudden and it will be painful, very painful.