00:00Supporting two teams shouldn't be frowned upon, it should be encouraged.
00:04You can have your Premier League team, your Championship team, your professional team
00:07and your local non-league club. One does not exist without the other.
00:12And the Premier League has been supporting non-league football for over 25 years
00:17thanks to its Premier League Stadium Fund.
00:20£222 million in funding to support infrastructure upgrades
00:24across a thousand men's and women's clubs since 2000.
00:27And that is what Non-League Day celebrates.
00:30On Saturday, 442 went down to Haywards Heath to experience football as it's meant to be experienced.
00:36Haywards Heath have benefited massively from the Stadium Fund.
00:39Their new cafe, Simo's, has increased their club revenue by 40% since the Premier League helped them build it.
00:47And I experienced that first hand. The queue for the burger was long, but boy was it worth it.
00:52Going to watch non-league football is an entirely different experience to watching Premier League football.
00:57You can roam around the pitch, be right by your favourite players from your favourite team.
01:02There are dogs running around, kids running around, kids and dogs running around.
01:05There's football pitches next to the football pitch.
01:07When people talk about football as a community, something that brings people together,
01:12non-league exemplifies that a million times more than Premier League or Championship or League One, League Two football ever
01:18could.
01:18This is a family, community day out.
01:22The football is just a part of it.
01:24Rather than sitting down, locking into 90 minutes, I spent my day chatting to locals, to friends,
01:29to people from the Premier League about football, about what makes football brilliant.
01:33If you've never been to a non-league football match at your local club, go and do it this weekend.
01:40Well I live in the best.
01:40I live in Reservant, and I'm in the second farm.
01:40I live in the best way of the world...
Comments