Lower-league clubs live a fraught existence. Financial insecurity, hastened player movement and an ever-thinning line between league table security and potentially devastating relegation battles mean it’s hard for clubs further down the pyramid to relax.
But for non-league clubs, there is an advancing adversary that could pose a far greater threat than any rival on the pitch: the climate crisis.
As floods, heatwaves, storms and excessive rainfall intensify, the already fragile infrastructure and limited budgets of non-league clubs are being pushed to breaking point, making extreme weather perhaps their most formidable opponent yet.
The stark reality is that non-league and grassroots football in the UK is losing significant match time already. According to the Met Office, around a third of grassroots pitches are already losing six to eight weeks of the year to flooding caused by severe weather conditions. In practical terms, that means over a month of fixtures evaporated each season, a number that is only set to grow.
Climate models forecast that by 2050, a quarter of all UK football grounds – including those used by professional clubs – will be affected by flooding, especially seasonal inundation. For non-league teams, which rarely enjoy the benefits of robust drainage or covered pitches, such predictions should set alarm bells ringing.
The BBC has highlighted the crisis in dramatic human terms. In a poignant profile, Andy Charlesworth chairman of Northern Premier East side Tadcaster Albion recalled how ‘when the phone rings off the hook in Andy Charlesworth’s house, it is time to worry…heavy rain…brings with it an existential threat to the club they love.’ The watershed is already upon them – not in some distant future.
Carlisle United encapsulate the kind of catastrophe that haunts non-league clubs too. Storm Desmond in 2015 left Brunton Park under eight feet of water, destroying clubhouses, changing rooms and offices. “We lost everything at first-floor level,” chief executive Nigel Clibbens said. “The repair work took from December 2015 to October 2016.”
He warned that insuring the club had become nearly impossible: premiums had soared, coverage was restricted and the club now has an ‘unfunded insurance gap’.
Far lower down the pyramid, Tadcaster Albion endured severe flooding in 2015 that submerged their pitch and bar, nearly causing the club’s demise. These are not the exceptions. Story after story paints the same picture: bricks and mortar no match for rampaging waterways, amateur volunteers no match for the creeping costs of disaster recovery.
Grassroots football reports losing ‘over one month of action every season due to bad weather,’ according to Football For Future. It’s a sentence delivered as if by rote, because, in clubrooms across the country, it often is.
AFC Wimbledon may no longer be in non-league, but their experience underscores the vulnerability of clubs with tight budgets. After extensive flooding, a sinkhole appeared in their stadium, illustrating that even clubs beyond the National League can fall victim to the earth opening beneath their feet.
Even professional stadiums in the top four divisions aren’t immune. The Rapid Transition Alliance predicts nearly one in four of those stadiums will suffer partial or total flooding by 2050. That includes assets such as Fulham’s Riverside Stand, which is projected to be underwater by mid-century. And yet, while bigger clubs might shoulder the burden or adapt, smaller ones can only absorb so many cancellations, repairs or insurance hikes before the strain becomes a threat to longevity.
To date, some clubs have begun to fight back. The FA and Forest Green Rovers have signed the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework and begun internal sustainability efforts. And more than a dozen clubs have signed up to Pledgeball’s Sustainable Travel Charter, pledging to fight the climate crisis by using sustainable travel for away games where possible.
Yet those examples remain exceptions. The vast majority of clubs lack the infrastructure, capacity or capital to adapt proactively.
Met Office data warns that UK winters could be up to 30% wetter by 2070 under high emissions scenarios. Non-league pitches, often unequipped with good drainage, pitched on flood plains or reliant on volunteer-run groundskeeping, will struggle under such strain.
The forecasts are blunt. Heavy autumn rainfall will become more frequent, overwhelming existing systems. Even supposedly minor infrastructure – drains, aeration systems, basic maintenance – can remain unfunded luxuries at clubs scraping by month to month.
This threat has existential implications. It’s not merely a delay in fixtures; it’s the loss of revenue from gates, bar takings, sponsors pulling funding due to uncertainty and, in worst cases, the permanent loss of a home ground. As Carlisle’s Clibbens pointed out, the value of their site plummeted, dampened by flood risk, subverting opportunities to relocate or redevelop.
What these clubs need – what the non-League game needs – is co-ordinated support. A cultural shift in the football community is essential. Governing bodies, community stakeholders, the Football Foundation, Environment Agency and local authorities must recognise that climate resilience isn’t discretionary; it’s survival.
It’s about funding improved drainage, securing emergency grants, enabling adhoc defences, providing subsidised insurance and investing in sustainable infrastructure even at the smallest grounds.
Lower-league football, built on community spirit and volunteers, has always thrived against the odds. Yet words like ‘existential threat’ are not hyperbole when climate-fuelled weather repeatedly brings floodwater, heatwaves and storms to their door.
The beautiful game may be approaching its toughest test – not from a superb strike or strategic genius, but from the rising waters and rocketing temperatures. The boots that tread our muddy pitches need help lacing up. And the time to act is now – yesterday, even – before the final whistle blows on clubs that deserve to survive.
To learn more about Pledgeball and how you can pledge to help your club shoot up the sustainability standings, visit Pledgeball.org.
