The pyramid
Steps, not tiers
Below the English Football League sits the National League System,
governed by The FA. It runs from Step 1, immediately under League Two, down to Step 6.
For the 2026-27 season The FA allocated 996 clubs across 48 divisions, 19
leagues and six steps, and promoted 132 of them. The FA releases National League System club allocations for Steps 1-6 in 2026-27 season. The Football Association, 2026-05-14.Source: The Football Association
Three pieces of vocabulary catch everybody out at least once:
- Steps count downwards. Step 1 is the highest level of non-league football and Step 6 is the lowest level inside the system. A higher step number means a lower level.
- A league is not a division. The Isthmian League is one league containing several divisions. That is why there are 48 divisions but only 19 leagues.
- There is no Step 7. It was abolished before the 2020-21 season. Below Step 6 sit the regional and county feeder leagues, run by the county FAs: outside the National League System, but with a promotion route into Step 6 subject to ground grading. Recreational and Sunday football sits below those again, with no route in at all. Most people who play football in England play somewhere down here.
The reason any of this matters to a campaign about money is simple. Every settlement negotiated between the Premier League and the EFL stops at the bottom of the EFL, because the EFL represents 72 clubs. Everything on this page is what sits underneath that line.
The whole ladder
What it costs to run a club below Step 5
We do not have access to any non-league clubs' accounts, but would be very happy to receive them if your club would like to share them (anonymously, if preferred), to further illustrate our argument.
However, we have taken a broad look at the costs-per-match for one club, in Step 6 of the pyramid, and you can see our findings here:
What we can tell you now
Two things, both sourced. First, the only Premier League money that reaches all of
Steps 1 to 6 is the Premier League Stadium Fund, announced at £16m in March 2022,
which clubs apply to for facilities work rather than receive. Steps 1 and 2 have one
thing more: the National League's 72 clubs share a Premier League funding agreement
worth £23.6m over the four years to 2028. Steps 3 to 6 are not in it.
Premier League announces increased funding for non-league and women's clubs. Football Foundation, 2022-03-28. Wider football support: the Premier League's investment package for the National League and its 72 clubs. Premier League.Source: Football Foundation
Source: Premier League
That combination — costs that step up on promotion, income that does not — is why so many clubs at Steps 3 and 4 treat promotion as a mixed blessing.
A share, an amount, and nothing
It is worth being precise about what the 72 clubs at Steps 1 and 2 actually have, because it is not what the EFL has, and the difference is the whole argument.
An EFL club receives a share. Solidarity payments are calculated as
a percentage of a third-year parachute payment — 30% in the Championship, 4.5%
in League One, 3% in League Two — so they are tied to the value of the broadcast
deal. When the deal grows, the share grows, and nobody has to agree to it again.
Premier League parachute and solidarity payments. Wikipedia.Source: Wikipedia
A National League club receives an amount. The £23.6m is a
figure negotiated on its own, fixed for four years, and due to run out in 2028. It is
not a percentage of anything. If the next broadcast deal doubles, it does not move.
Somebody has to sit down and agree a new one, and nothing obliges them to.
Wider football support: the Premier League's investment package for the National League and its 72 clubs. Premier League.Source: Premier League
The 924 clubs at Steps 3 to 6 receive neither. They have a grant fund they can apply to, and most of them win nothing from it in a given year.
None of this is a complaint that the money is not there. The 2026 proposal is
additional: the Premier League's own statement on it says the League
“already has long-term funding commitments to invest a record £1.6billion
every three years into the wider game and communities”, and the £23.6m comes
out of that. The complaint is about the mechanism. A share survives a change of
personnel. An amount has to be asked for again.
Premier League statement on strategic partnership with EFL. Premier League, 2026-07-30.Source: Premier League
996 clubs, no seat at the table
The settlement being negotiated above them does not mention them. Add your name to the argument that it should.