A SPECIAL open meeting will be held tonight to discuss the latest crisis facing York City Football Club.

Fans pressure group Friends of Bootham Crescent (FoBC) has hailed the open forum "an unmissable opportunity" to shape the club's future.

Titled Finding And Funding A Sustainable Home For York City FC, the meeting is aimed at finding a way out of the club's current deadlock with City of York Council over its proposed move to Huntington Stadium.

FoBC spokesman Ian Savage said the meeting was an attempt to end the dispute and "find a collective way forward".

He said: "This is a real chance for fans, local residents and interested parties to share ideas and come to some collective decisions on this most contentious of issues."

The council says time is running out on the proposed move to Huntington Stadium and has urged the club to begin the planning process.

It is due to start sharing the stadium with Nestl-Rowntree Athletics Club and York City Knights at the start of the 2004/05 season.

But the club's board has dismissed the move, under the council's terms, as "expensive, ludicrous and illogical".

It has criticised the first stages of the Huntington Stadium redevelopment plans, which it says would leave the club operating without key facilities such as a social club or club shop.

Tonight's meeting is due to be attended by council officials, York City Supporters' Trust, the club's board and pressure group Friends of Bootham Crescent.

Persimmon, the company that plans to redevelop Bootham Crescent once the club has left, declined to attend the meeting but has sent a statement.

A statement from Nestl-Rowntree AC will be read to the meeting which will call for York City to continue playing at its current home Bootham Crescent.

Tonight's meeting will be held at the Priory Street Centre, Priory Street, from 7.30pm.

Updated: 10:12 Tuesday, July 22, 2003