ILKLEY Town chairman Richard Giles believes the Football Association are not treating lower non-league teams correctly if they do not reverse their decision on voiding the 2019/20 campaign.

Last week, the FA announced that they are expunging the season for clubs in steps 3-7 meaning there would be no promotion or relegation.

This has led to over 100 non-league clubs sending an open letter to the governing body asking them to urgently reconsider their conclusion.

Town was one of those clubs as Giles issued the letter he sent to chairman Greg Clarke on the club's website calling the FA to stand up for the 'interests of the grassroots game'.

Ilkley were on the cusp of achieving step 6 status after a remarkable season which had led them to second place in the West Yorkshire League Premier Division.

Giles told the Ilkley Gazette that the FA should rethink their decision for the good of the game.

He said: "The decision taken to effectively write off the season is disrespectful to the volunteers who have spent nine months and 100s of hours running clubs and coming to watch games.

"Within a week of football stopping the FA to make that decision is showing a lack of respect to those people.

"This was a small group of committee members who were making the decisions without talking to the football clubs. As a result they did not consider all the implications for the leagues and the clubs.

"If you look for instant at Guiseley and Harrogate Town who play in step one and two. The decision does not effect their leagues but from steps 3-7 they have all been written off. It seems inconsistent."

Giles added:"This decision has the potential to split the lower leagues from the professional game.

"A lot of people in the non-league system feel that they are not a priority for the FA, if that continues it is a serious issue which could lead to splitting the game. It is within everybody's interest to work together.

"One of the strongest things about football in this country is the pyramid system from top to bottom it all connects together. We need to make sure that the bottom end of that pyramid are properly represented and listened too by our governing body."

The Ilkley chief also explained the direct effect the ruling would have on his own club before suggesting a different solution to ending the season.

He said: "It postpones our plans so we would defer that to the next season.

"Step 6 makes us more attractive to sponsors and it means we can charge on the gates so all that gets deferred, all that extra revenue you would made.

"This has been a 10-year project, we are ready now, but it has been taken away from us."

Giles added: "It is straight forward, you take the points average that every team has earned and you finalise the leagues on that basis.

"With the majority of the games played it seems better to use that then pretend the games didn’t take place at all."