Non-League Day: Athletic Bilbao & Premier League trophy part of grassroots ‘celebration’

Grassroots football can feel a million miles away from the international stage, but you might be surprised how closely the two are intertwined.

Gareth Southgate named four players with non-league experience in his squad for the World Cup in Qatar – Jordan Pickford, Nick Pope, Aaron Ramsdale and Callum Wilson.

Dozens more plying their trade at Premier League clubs also cut their footballing teeth outside of the hallowed 92.

With the home nations in action this week, the bright lights of the Premier League and Championship have dimmed, allowing non-league football to step into the spotlight.

Non-League Day was set up in 2010 and, over the following 13 years, has become accepted throughout the English ladder as a way of encouraging supporters of sides in the top tiers to experience football at a level they might not have considered before.

It returned last year after a two-and-a-half-year hiatus caused by Covid-19, but the 2023 edition on Saturday, 25 March, promises to be the biggest – and most cosmopolitan – to date.

James Doe, founder of Non-League Day, told BBC Radio London: “I am incredibly excited. It’s busier than ever. We’re getting stuff coming in from clubs all over the country.

“I’d been watching non-league football from the 80s onwards but I’d drifted away a bit. I reconnected in 2010 when I went to watch QPR in a pre-season game at a non-league club and it rekindled my love.

“We thought ‘let’s try and get everyone in during an international break’. It had never been done before but it was amazing, it worked and it’s just got bigger.

“It’s a celebration, never a protest, building bridges between all levels of the game. If you’ve got strong roots you can’t lose.”