This from Yahoo News:
FRED ATKINS has noted that York City, as a relegated ex-Football League club, “were even harder hit” by the coronavirus pandemic.
COVID-19 brought a stop to football across England and while the higher leagues chose to continue their seasons, it was different for lower divisions.
York, who were a part of the Vanarama National League North at the time, saw the 2020/21 season ruled null and void.
Atkins has, alongside Jasper Spanjaart, created a 57-minute documentary titled ‘Gate Money,’ which explores what transpired when the National League used a formula of their own to distribute £10 million across three divisions amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“York’s a slightly unusual case in that, there are obviously a lot of ex-Football League clubs in the National League set-up,” noted Atkins.
“Hereford were also in a similar sort of position, but Hereford had gone bust and were working their way back up again.
“The same could be said of Maidstone (United), my club. They were an ex-Football League team, I can remember playing York back in the day.
“Maidstone had gone bust and they were working their way back up.
“York were in a pretty unique situation. They were one of the big ex-Football League teams that had actually been relegated from the National League into the North division.
“They were even harder hit than some of the others. I think they were still getting something like 2,000 fans per game, without having the detail right in front of me.
“Because they were in the north division, the funding was split 60/40. 20-odd teams in the top division have got a lot more money than the teams in the lower divisions.
“That meant York got even more harshly treated than they would have been had they been a league higher.”
The documentary saw Atkins talk with numerous figures in the National League and its North and South divisions.
Dorking Wanderers’ Marc White, former Minister of Sport Tracey Crouch MP, BBC journalist Ollie Bayliss are just some of the many people spoken to.
Despite his efforts, Atkins was unsuccessful in contacting any members of the National League board.
“It was (frustrating), but at the same time, I kind of expected it,” said Atkins.
“I just thought, given the track record, we probably weren’t going to get anywhere with them.
“I thought that there’d been enough attempts in the past that had been made, it didn’t seem very likely. I didn’t want that to happen.
“I wanted to be able to sit down with someone like Jack Pearce (who is now the National League chairman), put a few questions to him and say, ‘Look, come on, what actually happened there?’
“But we didn’t get the opportunity, so that unfortunately couldn’t happen.”
‘Gate Money’ is available to watch for free on YouTube and those interested in viewing the documentary can do so here.