The Football League

The Northern English Football League is a semi-professional and amateur league founded in 1889, which makes the league the second oldest surviving league after the Football League.

Problems started for the league in 1974 when the Football Association abandoned amateur play altogether forcing leagues such as the Northern Football League to find a place in the structure of non-league football. The Isthmian League started to be a feeder to the Football League in 1982. Like other leagues in the Football Association, the Northern Football Association is sponsored.