Sunday league football is a term used in the United Kingdom to describe those association football leagues which play on Sunday, as opposed to the more usual Saturday. These leagues tend to be lower standard amateur competitions, whose players may have less ability, or less time to devote to football, but play purely for the love of the game. The term pub league can also be used, due to the number of public houses that enter teams.
Sunday leagues are sanctioned by the local County Football Association. There is no organised promotion or relegation between leagues, unlike in the National League System, which covers the top few levels of amateur football, although many leagues operate several divisions with promotion and relegation between them. However, ambitious Sunday teams may apply to join a Saturday league for a higher standard of football, and from there graduate to the FA-sanctioned leagues.
The FA Sunday Cup is a national knock-out competition for English Sunday league football teams administered by the FA. It was first staged in 1964.
The most prominent single location for Sunday league football is Hackney Marshes in east London.
Sunday leagues also exist in Scotland, where they make use of local council-owned pitches and facilities for nominal fees and are known as Sunday amateur football, mostly coming away from the perception of "pub leagues".
Women's football and futsal are usually played on Sunday, but it is not considered Sunday league football.
Famous quotes containing the words sunday, league and/or football:
“The man of business ... goes on Sunday to the church with the regularity of the village blacksmith, there to renounce and abjure before his God the line of conduct which he intends to pursue with all his might during the following week.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Stereotypes fall in the face of humanity. You toodle along, thinking that all gay men wear leather after dark and should never, ever be permitted around a Little League field. And then one day your best friend from college, the one your kids adore, comes out to you.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“You can’t be a Real Country unless you have A BEER and an airline—it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a BEER.”
—Frank Zappa (1940–1993)