FOOTBALL Supporters Federation official Andy Walsh has suggested there is “something wrong” as York City continue to rack up considerable six-figure losses.

James Mathie, the head of Supporters’ Direct’s England and Wales executive team, has added, meanwhile, that non-League clubs do not need to risk financial closure to achieve success.

Both men were speaking at the York City Supporters Trust AGM, where a debate was held to discuss proposals to dilute the body’s 25 per cent stake in the club and increase that of 75 per cent majority owner Jason McGill in return for the Malton-based businessman continuing to cover operating losses incurred under his stewardship.

Walsh, who is the FSF’s national game development officer, went on to suggest that McGill should divulge management accounts and business plans – both for the past two seasons and the next two – if an informed vote is to be made on the shares issue by Trust members in the future.

Ex-City board member Mike Brown revealed that such a request for details of the club’s budget for this season had been made by the Trust, but the body had received the response that such information was “commercially sensitive".

Brown went on to counter McGill’s assertion that the Trust agreed to contribute £50,000 to the club’s operating costs every year following JM Packaging’s takeover of the club in 2006, claiming that it was only ever an aspiration and not a contractual obligation, while alleging that “the Trust’s fundraising ability had been stifled for various reasons".

Club auditor Steve Kilmartin, meanwhile, also pointed out that McGill had contributed funds far in excess of those that were required of him as part of the legal document.

Addressing the 300-strong Burton Stone Lane WMC audience, Walsh said: “There is not a bank or a finance company that would give me money if I did not put forward a business plan, so why should the Trust give JM Packaging £50,000 a year or their 25 per cent shareholding for no say in how the club is run. I thought the compromise agreement that has been put forward was giving the shareholding away too cheaply, but it showed that Jason McGill was not willing to negotiate on those terms.

“FC United of Manchester had a turnover of £1.3million last season so, for this club to be running up operating losses last season of more than £500,000, there is something wrong. All of you fans are putting more than £50,000 into the club every year by coming through the turnstiles and, if people are then being asked to shake buckets, that’s crisis management.

“Nobody wants to do that to pay players and it’s not right that a man like (Trust chairman) John Lacey in his 70s is losing sleep over this because he cares and, if Jason McGill cares, he should be sitting down and talking to him. We want to see business plans and management accounts going back a couple of years and forward a couple of years, which is an entitlement under the 2006 agreement.”

Mathie stressed that there is always a choice in the amount a club decides to spend over the anticipated income that will be generated during a campaign and gave examples of where clubs have operated successfully in the black.

“In 2014/15, there were 23 National League clubs and 17 made a small profit or loss,” he revealed.

“There were some notable exceptions like Forest Green and Grimsby, but, from that 17, the biggest loss was £95,000.

“You can only decide the budget if you are in control of it and it’s a bit of a myth that you need money. The club at the top of the National League at the moment don’t make a loss.

“Wrexham went from losing £1million a year to breaking even three years later after the suppirters had taken over. Barnet also got promoted without making a loss.

“There is a choice in how much money a club loses and how can people be asked to invest money when they have no control over how it’s going to be spent?”

Commenting on the sixth-placed Minstermen’s wage bill for the current campaign, Kilmartin declared: “The players’ budget is probably the highest in the league and that’s what Jason wanted to do to get out of the division.”