When we talk about jobs in football, especially non-league football, we think of the club owners, the players, the managers, and maybe the coaches.
One job we never consider, is the match day announcer.
Yet where would we be without the person who reads out the team sheet, tells us where the club shop and the burger van are located, or why that player who was just sent off was actually only in the sin bin and that’s why he came back on ten minutes later?
To readers who aren’t familiar with non-league football that last bit may well be confusing, but all will be explained shortly.
The matchday announcer is the voice of the club. They are your guide on the day. They tie the whole thing together.
To learn more about this unsung role, I went to meet Joel Ormsby, the matchday announcer for Tooting and Mitcham who also happens to be a personal friend, and he told me all about it.
Why Non-League Football?
Asking what attracted Joel to the non-league football scene seems like a sensible place to start, and he tells me it was as much about getting involved in the local community as it was for the enjoyment of the game.
Born in Northern Ireland, Joel came to London in 2009 and settled in the borough of Merton.
“I was part of the London Northern Irish Supporters Club and we used to go to a Premier League or Championship game once or twice a year. Then I found out we had this football club right next to where I live which turns out to have a huge history in terms of non-league status.”
The club Joel is talking about is Tooting and Mitcham, who currently play in the Combined Counties League Premier Division South at the ninth level of the football system and Step 5 of the National League System.
As someone passionate about supporting local business, it naturally followed that he should redirect his weekly football spends to a small local club rather than one of the big London teams.
“If I spend £80 at Arsenal or somewhere, that £80 means nothing to them. It doesn’t even pay an hour’s wages for one of the players. Whereas if I spend £10 a game at my local team and go 3 times a year, that £30 is going a hell of a lot further. And actually, it might be paying a quarter of a player’s wages for the week.”
He went to watch a game not expecting very much and was shocked at the high standard of football on display.
“I find Premier League football so slow and sanitised. Relative to the price, so say £8 for a Tooting and Mitcham game vs £80 for a Premier League game, is the standard ten times worse? I’m not sure it is. And you can have a pint while you’re watching a non-league game too, that was another attraction.”
Then there is the social aspect.
Non-league games tend to attract small but loyal crowds, so new faces stick out and regulars make an effort to welcome them. The players and the manager might even have a drink in the bar after the game and are happy to talk to the fans. Supporters can get much closer to the club at this level, everyone is far more accessible.
After becoming a familiar face at the Imperial Sports ground, Tooting and Mitcham’s 3,500 capacity stadium, Joel soon made friends, even connecting a small contingent of the local Irish community around him known affectionately by fans as ‘The Irish Lot’.
Then last season, he was asked if he wanted to cover the odd shift as the match day announcer. He stepped up, and eventually, the job became his permanently.
What Does a Match Day Announcer Do?
On the face of it, the role itself is simple enough.
Welcome the fans, read out the team sheet and any special mentions or sponsors, keep the crowd updated with key match info such as goals and red cards, and then point them towards the exits at the end.
As with everything in non-league football though, it usually ends up being much more than that.
In terms of responsibilities, there are a few pages of official guidelines (which Joel admits aren’t always read) but first and foremost, his job is to keep the crowd informed.
This being non-league though, he is also responsible for the pre-match and post-match music as well as setting up the PA system before the fans arrive. So he can tentatively add technical support to his ever expanding list of jobs.
The announcements themselves are usually game or club related, but if there is anything such as a minute’s silence or a lost property announcement that also falls on his shoulders.
Can he have some fun with it?
“I’m always making tongue in cheek comments or trying to make a joke as much as I can within the rules of what’s expected of a matchday announcer. I think people appreciate that. Someone handed in a lost bank card, and my first announcement was ‘Hello to (person’s name) I’ve got something you really want come and see me’. 5 minutes later, ‘You really want this come and see me’. 5 minutes later, ‘OK I’ve got your bank card and it’s contactless. You’ve got 2 minutes to claim it or I’m buying a round for everybody.”
People will come and ask him to plug a 40th birthday or the club shop too, so he can amuse himself and the crowd with those sorts of things between the more practical announcements.
The pre-mach playlist is another way he can inject some fun into the job.
“Last year we played Farnham Town. Farnham kept having games postponed because their pitch flooded all the time, so whenever we played them at home the playlist was full of songs about rain. The Flood by Take That, for example. The fans notice and they enjoy it.”
He isn’t allowed to offer his opinion on the game itself, he isn’t a commentator so he keeps mostly silent during play, but there are times when he has to pipe up.
“It’s trickier this season because since we got relegated there are sin bins at our level. So if someone on a yellow card gets another yellow for dissent, they have to sit on the bench for ten minutes. But that’s only for dissent” (a second yellow for anything else would be a sending off).
Joel would explain this during the game as non-league football attracts fans who dip in and out. There is a noticeable boost in attendance when nearby teams like AFC Wimbledon, Crystal Palace, and Sutton United have an away game or an early kick-off. Fans will hop from one game to the next, so they may well wonder what is going on when a sin-binned player returns to the pitch.
He also announces things like penalty decisions and goals, although this hasn’t always gone smoothly.
“In a pre-season game our player hit the ball, it went into the net and our players ran over to celebrate, but the referee hadn’t given the goal. There was a sort of right-angle at the bottom of the post, a metal bar the ball had hit off and came out and the referee thought it had hit the post but it hadn’t, it had gone in. So I was halfway through saying ‘And that’s a goal scored by…oh, apparently not’ as the other team were playing on. But lesson learned, wait until the referee gives the goal.”
Then there are the player’s names.
What with London being an incredibly ethnically diverse multicultural city, there are occasionally names that a chap from Northern Ireland may not have come across before. This isn’t the Premier League so he has no help getting the pronunciations right, and with the away team sheet usually handwritten, messy handwriting can cause further complications.
“In non-league players can move clubs at any time, so sometimes there’s a name written on the team sheet that you can’t find online anywhere. My key bit of advice is to decide on the pronunciation then say the name like you mean it. If you sound unsure or start stuttering everyone will know you messed it up.”
So it’s clearly a job with challenges, but one that Joel can inject some of his personality into, especially at this level. What about taking things further, though?
Can You Do it Professionally?
Joel volunteers as the announcer for Tooting and Mitcham, so it isn’t his job – he works in the pub trade.
There are, however, people who are employed as matchday announcers for big clubs like Chelsea and so on. This made me wonder whether starting out with a fringe role like a stadium announcer at a local club could be a way into the football profession for non-players.
“Maybe. The question is how you would move into that job. There are no scouts going up and down the country looking for stadium announcers I don’t think.”
Would he do it full time if he could?
“If it was paid the same, probably. But my style is probably not suited to a big Premier League club with my tongue in cheek comments. I think it’s mostly done on the side. The guy that does it for Northern Ireland matchdays is a local radio DJ you know, so it’s more like they find someone who is already involved in that sort of thing. I don’t think there’s a clear route to getting a match announcer job.”
Where the job does exist as a paid position, it usually includes additional duties like interviewing players for club TV channels, and this not only requires an additional skillset but only clubs of the highest level will be able to afford it.
That said, Joel does sometimes end up on the pitch reading out special announcements, and being seen as the club ‘speaker’ has led to other on-mic roles too.
“I’ve run the odd pub quiz there and I’ve done the end of season awards the last couple of years, and other little bits like that.”
The Community Aspect
Joel is more involved with his local club than most, so he knows better than anyone the positive impact a non-league football club can have on the local community.
It isn’t just matchday announcing that he takes part in.
He has helped run a food bank out of the club during COVID which also served as a kind of outreach location for the council, and once restrictions were lifted he was one of the COVID safety team, going around sanitising the goalposts and corner flags with anti-bacterial spray.
Joel is at pains to point out that he is just one of a small number of volunteers that help out – the club shop needs to be manned, as do the entrance gates, tickets need to be sold, tea needs to be served in the boardroom – no one gets paid for any of this. This is alongside those who meet weekly to clean the stands, do the weeding, repair advertising hoardings, goal nets and fences. It’s a real team effort.
COVID aside, Tooting and Mitcham play an important regular role in the wider community. As just one example, the club has some additional land which is used by a local charity that supports people with learning difficulties. They help grow vegetables on the land and learn about gardening.
“I think that’s the beauty of non-league. They have a massive effect on local communities in terms of youth teams and working with local charities.”
Working with youngsters is something they do a lot of, and Joel mentions that a lot of ex-players who turn pro come back to support the club when they are in the area.
It works the other way around too.
“A lot of the young players they work with might have the talent but potentially aren’t ready for a professional academy structure. The club works really hard in supporting these young people and looking at how to improve the person as well as the footballing ability”
Tooting and Mitcham have had numerous players come through their ranks who have gone on to play in the Championship, the Premier League, and even abroad in the Bundesliga for example. In fact, Michail Antonio – West Ham’s all-time top scorer in the Premier League – is a product of their youth academy. The impact the club had on the lives of these players is undeniable.
Then there is the impact on the fans. People like Joel who turn up to watch a match one day and end up becoming part of the fabric of the club. He moved to a new city 500 miles from home, and found a small community to be part of based on a shared love of football.
Would he have become one of ‘The Irish Lot’ if he had gone to watch Arsenal instead?
I doubt it.
Non League Insider