NON-LEAGUE DAY will be returning for a seventh season, with the date pencilled in for Saturday, September 3.
The event has become a permanent fixture in the footballing calendar as Non-League takes centre stage and it’s hoped the latest instalment will be bigger and better than ever.
NLD always falls on an international break so that fans of Premier League and Championship clubs can experience the Non-League game.
There are four international breaks next season and after analysing all of them, NLD has decided on Saturday, September 3.
Although the date does coincide with the FA Cup, and will make it harder for clubs to offer special entrance prices to lure fans in, NLD have explained their reasons behind the decision.
“There are four international breaks during the 2016-17 season all of which offer significant advantages and disadvantages,” they said.
“The first three in September, October and November all coincide with FA competitions such as the Cup, Trophy and Vase. As a result of the FA’s ‘All Pay’ rules for these games, clubs find it much harder to offer discounted admission (although it is not impossible) and prefer it if NLD does not fall on such days.
“The fourth international break is scheduled for the end of March 2017. On this date there is no clash with such competitions but it is only a few weeks before Non-League Finals Day at Wembley.
“Given that we are trying to build two distinctive events which promote the Non-League game, we deemed them to be far too close together and also had to rule this option out.
“It then came down to September and November. The former coincides with a round of the FA Cup while the latter sees matches in the FA Vase and FA Trophy so on both dates 200 or so clubs are affected.
“With the weather potentially a lot worse in mid-November than early September and the FA Cup being a highly marketable attraction to neutrals, we decided to go with that.
“The September date also has the added bonus of not coinciding with international matches for any of the home nations which frees up more clubs and fans in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to also take part if they wish.
“We are well aware that this decision won’t please everyone but we hope you can understand why we made it and how difficult it can be. Non-League Day remains a totally volunteer-run initiative.”
