Maidstone United continue to fight for justice following last season’s National League funding controversy.

Co-owner Oliver Ash says the Stones “have been working hard with other angry clubs to hold the guilty parties to account” in light of the botched distribution of National Lottery money in October 2020 to help clubs through Covid.

He renewed his criticism of the board and its former chairman Brian Barwick and says “even Stalin would have blushed” at the appointment of Jack Pearce - a man at the centre of funding row - as his replacement.

Maidstone were among a number of well-supported clubs to miss out after the board went against government recommendations to issue grants based on lost gate revenue and instead adopted their own model.

Ash says the alternative proposal was recommended by Pearce and claimed it “rewarded seven out of eight National League board members’ clubs with £500,000 more than they should have received”.

The Stones, who were short-changed by more than £100,000, have been fighting the injustice ever since and are set to take part in a documentary “whose exposure of the truth will have a real impact”.

“The National League board proved to be incompetent throughout the crisis, from March 2020 onwards,” said Ash, in his director’s blog on Maidstone’s website.

“There were errors of judgement and errors of mismanagement, there was arrogance and failure to admit to mistakes and apologise for them.

“Clear-headed directors would have resigned but the ones we had were simply unable to grasp the seriousness of the crisis and the extent of their statutory responsibilities as directors, which are to represent all clubs fairly and not to feather their own clubs’ nests.

“The chairman, Brian Barwick, who finally resigned months after we and other clubs called for his head, kept blindly bleating ‘we are a well-respected league’ during every public utterance, as though he was conducting the orchestra on the Titanic.

“Jack Pearce, who was the architect of the flawed distribution of October 2020, has refused to admit to or apologise for all the errors of judgement.

“Let’s not forget it was Pearce who saw fit to recommend a distribution which went against government guidelines to reimburse lost gate receipts.

“His distribution proposal rewarded seven out of eight National League board members’ clubs with £500,000 more than they should have received. He acted as though he knew better than government.

“To add insult to injury the directors of those clubs, whose pockets bulged after adopting the Pearce distribution plan, then had the gall to appoint him Barwick’s replacement as league chairman. Even Stalin would have blushed.

“It’s really no excuse to say ‘well it was Covid so what else could we do’.

"The then-chairman Barwick should have had the humility back in March 2020 to establish Covid crisis committees to assist the league.

“Some of his board colleagues, who subsequently resigned, had proposed this.

“He could have drafted in additional support.

“He could have seen what was going to happen and himself resigned, admitting he had no appetite for the challenges ahead.

“He and his board simply weren’t up to the task on their own.

“They behaved as though they were some village committee organising a knees-up, not a company board responsible for governing some 68 clubs, clubs with combined turnovers of £50 million, clubs with 2,000 paid staff and hundreds of thousands of fans. It’s very serious stuff.

“Over the past months we have been working hard with other angry clubs and our legal advisers to hold the guilty parties to account for what went on in these recent dark days.

"This has proved complex and expensive. We have not given up though.

“In the meantime we have been made aware of a project to produce a film documentary telling the truth about the National League governance during this period.

“We are looking forward to working with the producers and writers to create a powerful documentary, whose exposure of the truth will have a real impact.”