While some non-league clubs are relatively new entities, others date back longer than a century and have built a long history within the sphere of the non-league game.
One club with ambition and history is Worthing FC. The West Sussex club were formed in 1886, and they are looking to make history in season 2024/25 by winning promotion to the fifth tier of the English football pyramid for the first time in their history.
Who are Worthing FC?
Worthing FC was founded in 1886 under the name Worthing Association Football Club. The club has spent most of its history in the lower reaches of non-league football, as the highest level of football they have played in is the sixth tier.
Until recently, the club was arguably happy to maintain the status quo. However, as we will discuss later, it is now highly ambitious and looking to climb the English football pyramid.
George Dowell saves the club
When people talk about Worthing FC today, it has an inescapable link to the tragic and uplifting story of the club’s owner, George Dowell.
Dowell was a Worthing player when, at the age of 17, he was involved in an incident that would change his life forever. He had just been named on the first-team bench for the first time after impressing for the club’s under-18 side.
The incident in question was a car crash that not only changed his life trajectory but also changed the course of his former club. The incident saw him spend ten months in hospital after being paralysed from the waist down. After the accident, he was awarded financial compensation for his injuries.
Understandably, it took Dowell time to get used to his new situation. In an interview with the Guardian, he describes how difficult it was to first be in a wheelchair:
“I would really struggle going out or going to new places because I was worried that it wouldn’t be accessible and there would be a big fuss when I got there. I wasn’t very comfortable in my own skin, so I ended up staying at home a lot.”
However, Dowell found inspiration in setting up his own club, Worthing Borough, with his friends. As their manager, he put his years of playing Football to good use, guiding his team to back-to-back promotions in the lower leagues of Sussex football.
However, the fledgling club struggled with infrastructure. When he realised Worthing was struggling financially, he knew he had the means, through his compensation, to help the club and, in the process, give himself a career in the game he loved so much.
In 2015, Dowell became the owner of Worthing FC. At 22, he was one of the youngster owners of a football club in England. Although he initially invested his own money, he has stated he doesn’t spend all his money on running the club.
His investment has made a big difference at Worthing, though. The club’s ground at the Woodside Road Stadium now has a capacity of 4,000 after the recent construction of the new North Stand. A club that often only used to attract 200 fans now has a far healthier average attendance.
George Dowell has also improved the pitch, which is now 3G and used by other organisations to raise extra money for the club. The pitch has undoubtedly improved the team’s fortunes.
George Dowell’s story has recently been turned into an inspirational Discovery+ documentary, which charts his ownership of the club and its latest promotion challenge.
Things have never been better for Worthing FC
Many of those people featured in the documentary state that they believe that Worthing FC should be higher up the football pyramid. The town has a population of 110,000 people, which is not small, especially compared to some of their rivals in the National League South.
The club seems to be putting together strong foundations and a good infrastructure for the future. George Dowell can undoubtedly be proud of what he has achieved at the club so far.
Not only on the pitch, as he has turned the club back into more of a community hub that is open to everybody, including hosting children’s fun days and camps.
Since Dowell’s arrival as the club’s owner, Worthing has also introduced youth teams at various age levels, as when Dowell himself played, there was only an under-18 squad and a first-team.
On the pitch, Worthing FC are in the highest division that they have ever occupied in the English football pyramid. In fact, Worthing only made it to the sixth tier for the first time in their history in season 2021/22, when they were crowned as Isthmian League Premier League champions.
In season 2023/24, they were close to winning promotion to the National League. The team finished third in the National League South table, qualifying for the play-offs. Having beaten Maidstone United 2-1 in the semi-finals, they suffered a heartbreaking 4-3 final defeat against Braintree United.
It wasn’t meant to be, but the club is fiercely ambitious. George Dowell hasn’t hidden his desire to eventually lead the club into the Football League.
After all he has overcome in the last decade and a bit, you couldn’t rule out the possibility that in the near future, Worthing will not only be making their National League debut but also their bow in the top-four tiers of the English game.
nonleaguefanatic
