10 Reasons Why Supporting a Non League Football Club Makes Sense

It’s about time that I dedicate a blog entry to one of the few things in life that are really important. Football.

Inside the cover of the album ‘The Remote Part’ by Indie band Idlewild it is written to ‘Support your local poet.’ 

Let me rephrase this appeal - support your local club! And by this I really mean your local club, not the Premier

League club that is closest to you. After all that would nearly make me a Chelsea fan and that of course is not

possible (in actual fact, I believe Fulham are even closer to where I live, and that’s actually not too bad.

I like Fulham. Beautiful stadium, friendly fans. A Michael Jackson statue in front of the ground. What’s not to like?)

No, by local club I mean the Non League club of the geographical place you call home. In my case that’s

two clubs: VFL Kirchheim of my hometown in Germany whom I used to watch as a child with my mates. 

One of their players lived in our house as a lodger and we were his little fan club. We were so proud to know

a football player personally. A really nice lad who always had time for us kids. And Hampton and Richmond

Borough FC which I was lucky enough to discover in 2008. Yes, discover is the right word. When I moved to the

Hampton area 5 years ago, I walked past the Beveree Stadium several times without realising there was actually

a football ground hidden behind the houses and trees that are surrounding it.

                                    

                                                          The Beveree Stadium

OK, to sum up all the reasons why you should support your local club I came up with a Top 10 of Good Reasons

to do so. Here we go:

1) By supporting your local club, you’re supporting your local community. 

And that is a sensible thing to do. You’re counteracting social exclusion and fragmentation, isolation and

people’s general indifference towards what’s going on around them. In times of recession and personal 

hardships, London Riots and increasing Youth crime you know why it’s making sense to play a constructive 

part within your local community.

Non League Football clubs are very active in organising cultural and social events such as concerts, 

comedy nights or away trips like Golf days or to the racing as they’re always keen to attract new supporters. 

They’re also well aware that such occasions are a great way to strengthen the community spirit amongst

the supporters and that organising such events is one of of their responsibilities within the local community. 

When a club is fortunate enough to have a Supporters Trust, like Hampton does, its members are often

very active when it comes to organising events or taking part in community activities such as fairs and parades. 

The other pillar of community involvement of a Non League Club is of course the development of youth football. 

When joining the youth team or Football Academy of a club, local children and young people are given the 

opportunity to develop their footballing and social skills on and off the pitch. This will not only strengthen their 

personal development but also their identification with their home town.

2) The rich don’t need to get richer and the poor don’t need to get poorer. 

It’s bad enough that society is going that way but when it comes to football we all got a choice. Why support 

a rich Premier League club that really doesn’t need your hard earned money when a Non League club is

desperately needing every penny to make ends meet to remain in business? And as mentioned above,

it’s not just the footballing side that a club is responsible for but all the other aspects as mentioned in

point 1. This of course doesn’t mean you have to stop supporting your League Club. Just by attending 

matches of your local club only now and then you’re already making a great contribution. And many

League team supporters will find the experience so rewarding that their professional team will in return 

become their second team as they start to support their Non League club ‘full-time’. This continues to be 

the case at Hampton. Ask any fan there and most of them will tell you a similar story about how they got 

disillusioned with League football- or simply couldn’t afford it any longer- and ended up at the Beveree. 

And- if you’re a season ticket holder of any League club, you can get in half price at Hampton matches.

3) You can get involved.

I’m selling the Golden Goal tickets at Hampton home matches. I know, it doesn’t sound that exciting 

but it’s actually really rewarding to hear at the end of the season how much money we made for the club just

by selling those tickets. It adds up to 1000’s of pounds. And that’s really cool.

 4)  You make new friends.

As much as I love Hampton, I have to admit that the football wasn’t that rewarding the last few seasons. 

But that’s OK. We’ve seen better times before and they will come again. But just by thinking of the amount 

of good friends I’ve made since I’ve been supporting the club makes all of this worthwhile: the cold 

Tuesday night matches standing behind the goal in the pouring rain and waking up the next morning 

with a fever, the 5th home defeat in a row when you just wonder what the hell is going on, those 

popular away trips to Chelmsford, the heart-warming encounters with our Womble friends*. It’s all 

worthwhile because you experience it with people you like and get on with. No one is in it alone.

Just one example. One day we were playing Woking at home. At the far end of the pitch I spotted a little 

flag someone had put up on the hoardings. Did my eyes play a trick on me? No, they didn’t. 

It was the German flag. Turns out Simone, a football fan from Bavaria, was visiting Woking where 

she used to work as an Au-pair.  Since that time she has been following Woking FC. On that day 

she came along with the Woking fans on their away trip to Hampton. We’ve since met up many 

times at Hampton or Woking home matches respectively and have stayed in touch on Facebook. 

And then there is Christian the groundhopper from North Germany who supports St. Pauli, my friend 

Callie who teaches German, my Womble mate...ups, there I said it. Yes, I’m friends with an AFC Wimbledon
            supporter. I’m such a traitor.

                                               

                                                            Me and Bertie Beaver

5) You identify with your local club and community.     

See point 1. Local patriotism is not a bad thing.

6) It’s more affordable.

40 quid for a Premier League ticket? I don’t think so.

7) You have a direct view on the pitch.

I’ve been to Wembley, the Millennium Stadium, Craven Cottage, 

to the Mercedes-Benz Arena, to Anfield ... and as magnificent 

as all those places are, I’ve never actually seen in detail a 

player’s facial expression when scoring a goal, or a well 

executed tackle, or heard players exchange their pleasantries on 

the pitch... the action is just too far away! OK, now and then you

might get the odd Non League ground where the stands and the 

pitch seem to have different postcodes (Chelmsford being a 

good example) but generally speaking you’re sitting or standing

directly by the turf. To sum up, at a Non League match more or 

less nothing escapes your eyes and ears. And that’s quite fun.

8) You can go on unique away trips.

Truro away on a Tuesday night might not be the most sensible of ideas but I can confirm that everyone 

of the Hampton lot who embarked on this journey made it back alive.  I remember when I started to 

support Hampton I went to most of the away trips that season. I was new to London and by traveling

to such places like Welling, Dulwich, St. Albans, Norbiton, Bromley and Woking I got a good idea 

of which places one might want to visit again... or not. Trips further away are fun too, especially 

when you get a chance to see the sea. Dover and Bognor Regis away I have fond memories of. 

A pint of lager at the ground in Bognor was £2. That left a lasting impression on me. 

And then there was of course the once in a lifetime experience of meeting one of my all time 

biggest heroes- Ken Loach- at Bath FC. Actually it wasn’t once in a lifetime, because I met him again 

when we played Bath at home. While I was talking to him we scored twice. And I was only speaking 

to him for three minutes. In the end, Bath got promoted and we weren’t, so Mr Loach has had the 

last laugh.

                                     

                                                               Ken Loach at Twerton Park.

9) You can chat to the players and the manager.

At which Premier League club can you have a drink with the players or the manager in the bar 

after the match? Exactly! How many football fans are wishing every Saturday that they could tell the 

manager what he is doing wrong and how they would do things differently. Well, at a Non League Club

you have the opportunity to do exactly that.

10) Enjoy a special atmosphere.

One of the loveliest aspects of Non League football is that there is no segregation. You can mix and 

mingle with fans from the other club. You can also drink alcohol in the stands in sight of the pitch which

is great. Football and beer is just like tea and milk, Laurel and Hardy, Fish and Chips...you get the idea. 

Don’t separate what belongs together.

What’s Going On

> My latest production is a short fly-on-the-wall documentary about the excellent upcoming band 

The Craven Braves from London who are putting guitar driven music back on the map. The doc 

was filmed on the day they launched their debut single 'Rough Diamond.' The film reflects how 

The Craven Braves' independent attitude towards the current music scene and their strong song 

repertoire is truly setting them apart from their contemporaries.

Link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi06QRc3rlg&list=UUToI_vVNB_OtnXecj4niZSw&index=1&feature=plcp

I could go on for ages how good I think this band is but it’s so difficult to describe sound with words 

so best thing is you just have a look at the film, catch them live or download their debut single from

Amazon or iTunes.

                                     

                                                                  The Craven Braves

* HRBFC and AFC Wimbledon love to hate one another. A long, local rivalry. They have never beaten us. 

That’s nice. But they got promoted at our gaff. That’s not so nice.