Gate Money (2022)

In March 2020, Non-League Football was quickly brought to a halt by COVID-19. Without fans allowed inside, funds quickly dried up. Players and staff were furloughed and community clubs spread across England struggled with their finances. When the Government finally intervened in October to the tune of a £10m National Lottery grant, it should have been a feel-good story of a league that had hit the jackpot. Instead it turned into a tale of bitterness, recrimination and abuse when the terms of the distribution were announced. In Gate Money: Inside Non-League Football's Funding Fiasco, sports journalist Fred Atkins aims to find out what happened to the £10 million National Lottery grant that was supposed to keep 66 National League football clubs afloat during the pandemic. The film features interviews with David Bernstein (the former head of the FA), Tracey Crouch MBE, Kieran Maguire, Ollie Bayliss and many others. Gate Money is a 55-minute documentary production which was funded and produced independently in a joint-collaboration between SPNJRT Media Productions and Moody Shots Production. The film is directed by Jasper Spanjaart (The Unknown Torres, 2019).