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York City co-owner issues open letter making urgent plea to the National League and the EFL

York City co-owner Julie-Anne Uggla issues an open letter making an urgent plea to the National League and the EFL after playoff defeat.

The letter expresses strong dissatisfaction with the current promotion system between the National League and League Two, highlighting the injustice they face, who, despite a dominant season, finishing 2nd with 96 points, they missed out on promotion after losing in the playoffs.

Oldham, who finished 5th on 73 points, beat 7th place Southend (who had 68 points) in a thrilling 3-2 win at Wembley on Sunday.

The letter continued to say that the existing two-up structure is outdated, penalises excellence, and fails to reflect the narrowing gap between top National League and lower EFL clubs.

The letter supports the “3UP” campaign for three promotion spots and urges immediate reform, suggesting transitional measures or an accelerated implementation to address the issue.

While acknowledging the achievements of Oldham Athletic and Southend United, it stressed that the limited promotion spots hinder great clubs and undermine the fairness and integrity of the English football pyramid.

OPEN LETTER:

Re: Unjust Promotion Rules – A Call for Immediate Reform

Dear National League and Mr. Birch,

I am writing to express my deep concern and disappointment at the current promotion system between the National League and League Two, following a season where York City FC, despite finishing 28 points clear of 7th place and winning 12 more matches, were denied promotion.

Such a glaring imbalance not only undermines sporting merit but erodes the very foundations of fair competition. To dominate a league campaign so comprehensively (Barnet the only exception), only to be forced into a playoff lottery, is structurally unjust. It penalises excellence and rewards inferiority in a way no professional league system should condone.

While I am aware of the historical basis for the two-up structure, it is no longer fit for purpose. The gap between the top National League clubs and the lower EFL clubs has narrowed, and in many cases reversed, making the case for three-up promotion beyond compelling.

The “3UP” campaign rightly reflects the sentiment of every National League club and countless supporters. But waiting until 2025–26 only deepens the injustice for clubs like York City, who have already paid the price for a system built on outdated assumptions.

I urge both governing bodies to urgently consider transitional reform, whether via immediate review, temporary relief measures, or an accelerated implementation of the “3UP” model. At the very least, this season’s outcome should provoke an honest re-evaluation of what fairness in football truly means.

I would also like to point out that writing this letter should not undermine the achievements of Oldham Athletic from their victory at Wembley yesterday, and to Southend United for making the final. Their accomplishments should not go unnoticed.

Too many great clubs, including Oldham and Southend, have fallen into this league with little chance of redemption due to the lack of promotion places. The current system is simply not sustainable anymore.

For clubs, fans, and the integrity of the English football pyramid, it is time to reward merit and restore credibility to the system.

Julie-Anne Uggla

In February, all 72 clubs in the National League today took the unprecedented step of supporting a letter to the Football League Board requesting a vote to create three promotion places into their league. More on that HERE.

Oldham boss Micky Mellon said after the playoff final win: “Because it’s so raw, you’d have to say it’s an unbelievable achievement to turn it around and get a result from where we were.

“This clubs is a monster, we were under a lot of pressure to go up because we have a great family behind us that wanted to go up.

“In football you’ll always get a chance, you’ll always believe you’ll get a chance and you have to take it.

“You’ve got to give these teams in the National League a chance, because there’s some big teams.

“I think the EFL has to help the original teams, the EFL has to change. I think the top two should go automatic and the rest fight out, that’s the fairest thing for football.

“It makes so much difference to everything about Oldham as a football club, we can really build forward behind the scenes now.”

Southend’s Kevin Maher also said: “There’s a bottleneck at this level, and this game tells you everything about the standard and quality in the league.

“In the National league you’ve got to be better than 22 teams and only the top one goes up automatically, while in League Two you’ve only got to be better than 20 sides – it should be three up, of course it should.

“Whether it gets voted in or not I don’t know, people say it’s like turkeys voting for Christmas.”

Twitter users reacted after the York City co-owner issues an open letter making an urgent plea to the National League and the EFL…

@jackbinns_: Absolutely bang on 👍

@Kieran_Stevo7: 😂😂😂😂 why didn’t you just win the playoffs if you were so much better than the teams 3rd-7th?

@_morgan_bruce: Love this. Need the 3 up 3 down format to come into effect immediately for the 25/26 season

@harrydunn1234: Win the league or go up through the playoffs. Not that hard tbh 😜

@Gameday523: While I do believe there should be 3 up 3 down my argument with Playoffs has always been if your good enough to finish miles clear in 2nd you should be good enough to win the playoffs.

@morganzwynne: Mental some of these comments on what is on behalf of the league. It’s a shame the football league want to protect these shit football clubs like Accrington, Harrogate etc and keep them in the football league. So many clubs including York would make for a better and proper efl 👍

@OffTheLineBlog: Oof, I mean… where do you even start with this? Intrigued to know if this statement was planned to go up if they’d won the play-offs.

@dharvey4: L2 is awful, more teams need to be promoted from the NL

@SteveDonovan1: It is unjust. 3 up, 3 down makes more sense. However… York were quite happy to take an ‘unjust’ promotion in the 21/22 season when they finished in 5th, more than 20 points behind Brackley, who finished 2nd.

@bradswfc__: It’s about time they do this. Non league ain’t even non league anymore. Can count on one hand how many semi-pro teams are in the Conference now

@LukeDeann: Letter speaks the truth and is what most clubs in the NL feel… but the timing of it is in poor taste for Oldham’s victory yesterday. They deserved to go up over York its pretty simple

@TheLeonKearney: Stinks of the way we felt after the FGR ’17 final 😆 It’s never the winners who complain. But when it doesn’t go your way, toys come out the pram.

@GarryVaux: If they don’t change it to 3UP they should at least just have the play-offs between 2nd-5th, and not have 2nd and 3rd sitting around waiting for their opponents

@Zack_Pilkington: Maybe you shouldn’t of got bummed 3 zip at home all best

@nathancoulson98: They’re only in this league because of the playoffs in the NLN. 3 Up should absolutely come into place asap but this is just pathetic.

@WilloTRFC: You had an advantage of a 1 home game shoot out and were dogshit. Judging from that performance you’d of finished bottom of the national league.

@LutonEye: York wetting the bed about being in the play offs. Don’t remember it being such an issue when they finished 15 points behind Wrexham and got promoted in 2012…

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