Why 100,000 followers can’t get enough of soap opera at eighth-tier club
It was probably mid-October when a friend with a good understanding of the rhythms of non-League football first mentioned Farnham town.
they had banged out 10 wins in a row at the start of the Combined Counties South season prompting a few murmurs of interest and questions about their budget so I kept an eye on their progress.
By the turn of the year, they had won 16 out of 16, a record matched by PSV Eindhoven at the time but Peter Bosz’s team soon dropped two points and Paul Johnson’s team carried on winning.
Farnham’s run had reached 25 wins when they ground to a 0-0 draw against Knaphill this month, playing most of the game with 10 men.
On Saturday, at Jersey Bulls, they failed to win for a second time this season but a comeback from two down added another point to the total, which was enough to clinch the title and promotion to the Isthmian South.
For the first time in their 118-year history, they go into Step Four of non-League, the eighth tier of the English football pyramid.
As rivals are quick to point out, they have enjoyed new investment and spent big money on players from higher leagues, which is obviously crucial but there is more to it.
Farnham are transforming off the pitch, with a new stand and covered terrace, new toilets and electric scoreboard.
there is also the fresh energy from the young minds behind one of the world’s leading social media marketing agencies, working with influencers.
‘We need to engage with people through the week,’ says 29-yearold Harry Hugo, who sunk a sixfigure slice of his fortune into his hometown football club, and joined the club’s board as a director when Goat, the company he co-founded, sold to advertising giants WPP.
‘the Premier League has Sky Sports and national media as an engine to drive it. We don’t have that in non-League. We can go three weeks without a game with postponements, so we try to build that soap opera.’
Farnham produce their own behind-the-scenes documentary on Youtube, broadcast every Friday, spinning narratives around characters inside the club, and a highlights package out within 12 hours of the final whistle.
they have 100,000 followers across all social media accounts. Highlights from their recent game against Croydon Athletic, a club where rapper Stormzy and former Crystal Palace star Wilfried Zaha have invested, reached 200,000 views.
Farnham claim to be in the top four of most-followed teams in the non-League system, and if the pyramid was based on social media followers they would be in League One, six tiers up.
All of which is mildly bewildering for those who fell for football in an era when interactivity meant scouring evening sports papers, shuffling League Ladders and ticking off days until the next edition of Shoot! landed on the doormat.
the notion of intimate daily coverage was until recently anathema to football’s traditionally insular world but the tipping point is past us.
Wrexham’s story, with its Hollywood owners and hit docuseries, has made the North Wales club among the world’s most recognisable. It is the most compelling and easily digestible example of why football will not turn back.
the power of social media has been a gift to hard-up clubs fighting to exist in the depths of football. At its most basic level, it is a free marketing tool. Harness it properly and benefits are obvious.
Crowds at Farnham are up from an average under 150 to more than 500, with highs of 1,200 this season. More than a thousand shirts have sold in 12 months, helped by a sponsorship deal with Youtube celebrities the Sidemen and a team that simply keeps on winning.
At its heart, it is still about football. For all its digital panache, Farnham remains — and wants to remain — a community affair. It costs £8 at the turnstiles. Add a pint, a burger and chips and there’s still change from £20. Under 16s come free.
On tuesday night against Redhill with floodlights barely piercing the drizzle, the Memorial Ground positively crackled with the spirit of non-League football.
Fans milled around, beers in hand, minding the puddles and seeking shelter to catch up and cheer the goals in a 3-0 win. Dogs came bedecked in the club’s claret and blue, and a knot of young fans behind one goal beat their drum, sang songs and tormented the visiting players.
‘It’s a proper little football story,’ according to Paul tanner, who has seen Farnham town lurch from one crisis to another in years as player, manager, chairman and now director of football.
tanner is unashamedly old school, prepared to admit he cannot fathom half of what’s going on with tiktok and the Sidemen or why a clip of him falling off an ice bucket might be the source of such online fascination but he’s simply thrilled to see his club thriving.
PSV continue to get along just fine as well, by the way, still unbeaten at the top of the Dutch Eredivisie.