York City owner Julie-Anne Uggla has written an open letter to the National League and the English Football League, criticising the current promotion system in the fifth tier and calling for three teams to be promoted each season.
Under the current structure, only the regular-season champions (Barnet this season) and the winner of a play-off involving teams finishing second to seventh are promoted. Uggla described this as 'structurally unjust', noting that York finished second with 96 points but failed to win promotion, while Oldham Athletic and Southend United—who finished 23 and 28 points behind York respectively—contested the play-off final.
'Such a glaring imbalance not only undermines sporting merit but erodes the very foundations of fair competition,' Uggla wrote. 'To dominate a league campaign so comprehensively, only to be forced into a playoff lottery, is structurally unjust. It penalises excellence and rewards clubs with fewer points in a way no professional league system should condone.'
Uggla urged the governing bodies to consider transitional reform, including an accelerated implementation of the '3UP' model, which would mirror lower-league systems where at least two teams are automatically promoted. The Football League's League Two already promotes three teams automatically.
Critics note that Uggla's stance benefits her own club, as York would have been promoted under the proposed change. However, she maintains her goal is fairness across the National League. Automatic promotion from the fifth tier was only introduced in 1987, and a second play-off place was added in 2003.
