Whitstable Town manager Marcel Nimani calls for promotion play-offs at step five to increase competition in the Southern Counties East Premier Division

Whitstable boss Marcel Nimani believes the lack of promotion potential at step five is killing the competition.

While all other levels of football from the EFL Championship down to step six of the non-league pyramid operate a promotion play-off system, the 16 step five leagues, including the Southern Counties East Premier Division, are more of a closed shop.

Nimani is leading the call for the FA to give step five football an equal opportunity to the rest, in a bid to keep the competition alive for as long as possible.

All other divisions above theirs - and even the one below - operate with automatic promotion places followed by at least a four-team promotion play-off.

In the SCEFL Premier Division the top spot is held by runaway leaders Erith & Belvedere and a gaggle of others are chasing second, which would earn them an away play-off against a side from the level above who finish either third or fourth bottom.

For teams like Whitstable, who are enjoying a decent campaign on the periphery, their promotion hopes hang by a thread with more than two months of the campaign yet to play.

Nimani said: “Step five deserves far more respect than it is getting.

“If you look at step four across our region and the top five [in the Isthmian South East], three of them are ones that came out of step five last year (Beckenham were Combined Counties League Premier South Division Champions while Sheppey United won the SCEFL Premier Division and Chatham Town went up as one of the best-placed teams on points per game).

“Step five at the moment is getting one spot and the second gets a play-off. Every other league gets a play-offs for the top five. I don’t understand why that isn’t offered at step five because it kills the season off.

“There