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:
“Do you know anything that in all its innocence is more humiliating than the funny pages of a Sunday newspaper in America?”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“We’re the victims of a disease called social prejudice, my child. These dear ladies of the law and order league are scouring out the dregs of the town. C’mon be a glorified wreck like me.”
—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)
“In football they measure forty-yard sprints. Nobody runs forty yards in basketball. Maybe you run the ninety-four feet of the court; then you stop, not on a dime, but on Miss Liberty’s torch. In football you run over somebody’s face.”
—Donald Hall (b. 1928)