Ahead of Non-League Day this Saturday, we visited two amateur clubs who have benefited from Premier League investment.
Potters Bar Town
As the chairman, president and treasurer of Potters Bar Town, Peter Waller has his hands full running the club.
He has plenty of experience, having just completed 50 years of service with the Scholars, and with a dedicated team of volunteers to assist him at the Hertfordshire club.
But to improve the club's infrastructure required help from outside.
"Our facilities were built 30-odd years ago," he says. "The roof was falling in and the boilers were old."
So Potters Bar Town applied to the Football Foundation for funds.
The £150,000 grant the club received from the Premier League's Football Stadia Improvement Fund (FSIF) four years ago helped to make a significant upgrade to their facilities.
Revamped clubhouse
They now have a revamped clubhouse that will generate more revenues and bright, modern changing rooms they can be proud of.
The development has allowed Potters Bar to meet the FA National Ground Grading criteria for the Bostik Premier Division, the seventh level of the English Football pyramid, and one to which they were promoted in the summer.
"One of the pleasures I have is coming out here sometimes on my own and sitting, looking across the grounds and thinking that 50 years ago, when I got involved, this was just a green field," Waller says.
"What we've achieved over all the years has been phenomenal."
Part of that has been thanks to three more grants from the FSIF, which have helped Potters Bar Town to invest in a new tractor, stand and dugouts, as well as boundary fencing.
Over the past two years more than 200 non-league clubs similar to Potters Bar Town have benefited from grants from the FSIF.
Clubs interested in applying for FSIF funding should contact the Football Foundation.
