York City will ask parents of the club's promising young footballers to try to raise £200 in sponsorship towards the Centre of Excellence's running costs of next season.

The idea has been forced on the club by the withdrawn funding caused by the club's relegation from the Football League.

A combined annual total of £138,000 was donated to the School of Excellence programme by the FA, the Professional Footballers' Association, the Premier League and Sport England while the Minstermen were a Football League club.

But non-League status has seen that amount drop to £69,000 and funding is likely to be withdrawn altogether unless the Minstermen are promoted from the Nationwide Conference next season.

It is a further example of football's leading authorities' ambivalence towards the plight of smaller clubs and City youth development director Steve Beck said: "It's absurd to think that all our Centre of Excellence problems for one year would be solved by £120,000 - the salary that Rio Ferdinand is demanding as a weekly wage.

"It is devastating that our funding has been dramatically reduced in this way simply due to the fact that we are now playing in the Conference. In order to fund the continuation of the Centre of Excellence - an important community asset which has successfully produced many talented players - we have had to ask the parents of our young footballers to try to obtain sponsorship of £200 next season to contribute towards operations."

All money raised will go towards funding part-time coaching staff, a physiotherapist, the hire of training facilities, insurance, kit and equipment.

Each youngster will also receive a junior season ticket, Junior Red membership and a travel tracksuit.

Beck pointed out that youngsters should not feel any anxiety about their positions at the club if they fail to raise £200, saying: "Any player unable to reach the target will not be discriminated against in any way as players are selected for the scheme purely on merit. To ease the situation, we are also giving parents the opportunity to pay the sponsorship in monthly instalments of £20. This kind of request is common practice at other professional and amateur football clubs."

Beck added that the move reflected the problems intensifying because of the growing gulf between football clubs at the highest and lower levels of the game.

He said: "It's a measure we have had to introduce to ensure the continuation of junior football at York City and, without assistance, the scheme would collapse. Football, in general, needs a wake-up call as the gap between the Premier League and the lower echelons of the pyramid becomes even greater. Better distribution of football income needs to be introduced."

Updated: 10:52 Thursday, April 28, 2005