Maidstone co-owner Oliver Ash has called on the National League to drop their obsession with a third promotion place to the Football League.

Mr Ash believes league bosses are scared of losing the two promotion spots they currently have if the FA ratifies proposals to allow 3G pitches in the National League from next season.

As things stand, a club playing on 3G at Step 1 of the non-league pyramid would have to rip it up and switch to grass if they earned promotion to League 2.

However, League 2 clubs have also voted to allow 3G in their division – a move which has yet to be formally approved.

Two clubs have been promoted from non-league’s top flight every season since 2002-03 and some are keen to see even more movement between the National League and League 2.

But Mr Ash said: “To be obsessed by getting a third promotion place to the Football League is, in my view, completely misguided.

“It puts other items of interest such as 3G, which is of interest to lots of clubs, down the pecking order of priorities.

“The idea of three up, three down shouldn’t be a priority. For some people, getting an extra promotion place is the Holy Grail and I find that completely astonishing.

“We are ambitious and would like to challenge in National Premier one day and perhaps even in the Football League but it seems very appropriate at the moment to have two up, two down.

“There’s only a handful of clubs who really have ambitions to stay durably in the Football League and most of the others, out of 68 clubs, are happy to be in the National League and don’t aspire to the challenges of being a Football League club.”

Mr Ash travelled to Telford last week for the National League EGM at which member clubs voted in favour of 3G pitches from 2016-17 onwards for Step 1.

He said: “We think it’s a necessary step forward for clubs that want to use the 3G model at National League or Football League level. It opens the door past the National Premier to the Football League."

In response to Mr Ash's comments, the National League said in a statement: “We are grateful to the Kent Messenger for the opportunity to respond to a series of quotes attributed to Oliver Ash. However, if we attempted to do so, in relation to such a varied selection of individual opinions, this would be counterproductive for the 68 clubs in membership of The National League.

"It is not the correct way to conduct League affairs, especially when many issues are often more complicated than some realise and which many may term as ‘self interest’."

Read the full story in Friday's Kent Messenger