I adore the Non-League Paper. For me, it embodies the deep spirit of football in English culture. Yes, there's the world famous Premier League, but it's this long tail — the 1,500 people who stand out in the rain to watch a sixth-tier match — that really sets English football apart. This Columbia Journalism Review profile is charming:
By 6:30pm on a typical Saturday, an army of freelancers and local enthusiasts positioned throughout England and Wales file their missives. Then Badcock and the staff “crash it all” into shape, with just over three hours to hit their print deadline. The reports, which Badcock said are all handled with the “same respect and importance,” top out at four hundred words. One of the challenges unique to this work is that, with some of the smaller teams, the only person available to write a report is often a team volunteer, who may choose to celebrate their own club no matter the result. “Sometimes a team might lose four-nil, but the goalkeeper”—the guy who let in the four goals—“gets awarded ‘Man of the Match’” by an unwincingly biased correspondent. “It’s part of the charm,” Badcock said.
Notes from the non-league.cjr.orgThe Non-League Paper, devoted to the lowest tiers of English soccer, reports on more than a hundred games each week—and has earned a fan base of its own.