For more information on the current structure of the NLS, see the main article.
The history of the English non-League football system encompasses the history of non-League football in England. The non-League football system describes the hierarchical system interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs that sits below the English Football League. Currently, The Football Association administers the top six levels of the English non-League football system. It has named this the National League System (NLS). The NLS spans six levels of the overall English football league system, and consists of around 48 divisions in total.
Although many of the leagues within the National League System have been around for a long time, the System itself is a fairly recent development. It was created by The Football Association in the 1990s to bring together various ad hoc arrangements from around the country, and to give clubs a clear path of promotion and relegation from the lower levels of the pyramid right through to the professional leagues.
Before 1951
In the late nineteenth century a number of different football leagues were developed. Of these, only the Football League and the Football Alliance had national and professional pretensions. The Football Alliance was merged into the Football League in 1892, creating a two-tier competition. Both of these divisions were strongly weighted towards the North and the Midlands, since Southern County Football Associations were opposed to professionalism. Nonetheless, in 1894, the Southern League was formed, of both professional and amateur teams. It was considered to rival the Football League in quality and its strength was demonstrated by providing the only non-league FA Cup winner, Tottenham Hotspur in 1901, and by attracting a northern side in Bradford Park Avenue to join in 1907.
As the Football League expanded further since its merger with the Football Alliance, it admitted clubs from a variety of leagues. The Midland League, founded in 1889, provided most of the additional clubs until the First World War, in addition to the Southern League. Other leagues which provided teams promoted to the League included:
The Lancashire League (merged with The Lancashire Combination in 1903) The Combination (centred around Cheshire, Staffordshire and North Wales; folded in 1911) The Central League (From 1911) The Birmingham & District League The Northern Alliance
The Northern League (1889) barred professional clubs in 1906 and remained strictly amateur until 1974. It rarely provided new entrants to the Football League unless its constituent clubs wished to turn professional.
This was mirrored by the Isthmian League (1905), covering London and the South-East. Despite their relative lack of impact on the Football League, they dominated the FA Amateur Cup, collecting the trophy 50 times between them from 1894 to 1974.
This remaining group of regional amateur and semi-professional leagues formed a patchwork across England and Wales, collectively known as "non-League football". Non-League in this sense referred to outside the national, professional Football League, rather than without a league. There was relatively little movement between leagues, although ambitious clubs could apply for membership of a stronger competition, often to replace a club that had folded.
Creation of the Third Division
In 1920, the top division of the Southern League was merged into the Football League to form the Third Division, establishing the Southern League as a feeder to the Football League and ending claims to their parity. The following season a further division, consisting of teams from a series of northern leagues, formed the Third Division North, with the existing league renamed the Third Division South accordingly.
Many predominant non-League leagues contained a mixture of Football League reserve teams as well as smaller clubs. The Central League became composed entirely of reserve teams after the foundation of the Third Division North encompassed all six of its remaining first teams.
1951–79: Southern League and Northern Premier League
Election to the Football League
Clubs in the strongest leagues could apply to join the Football League by standing in an annual election. The bottom four teams in the League's lowest division were also obliged to stand in the election, and the existing League members would vote on the four teams from all those applying.