SEVEN days from now it could all be over.

No kidding, no bluffing, no hype - York City could cease to exist as a football club by next Saturday.

That is the grimmest prospect ever faced by the Minstermen in their eight-decade and more history.

There have been times when the club flirted with exit from the Football League fold - several re-election campaigns were fought and, mercifully, won.

But in a week's time York City face a descent from which they might not be able to recover. Football League oblivion is staring the club in the face.

Talks, growing more urgent as each hour elapses, are still going on between the football club's administrators Jacksons Jolliffe Cork; the club's landlords Bootham Crescent Holdings; and the various consortiums, one of which has been backed by City of York Council.

It is an appalling state of affairs that York City Football Club should be in this precarious state. But it is not irretrievable.

York City FC could, and should, still be playing beyond next Saturday's potentially final game ever at home to Swansea City.

What is needed now is common-sense and a circumspection that hitherto might have been lost in what has been a vortex of emotion, especially now that one of the most unforgiving of enemies - time - is marching on against survival.

The key to City staying afloat surely lies with Bootham Crescent Holdings, which has been at pains to point out its democratic principles over the festive period.

If the controlling company is not prepared to hand back its shares at the rate it first paid for subsequent control of the football club - and that does seem unlikely - there is still a chance of salvation.

As landlords, BCH can ease the fears of any potential buyer by declaring that the Minstermen's future at Bootham Crescent is assured for this season and next season at least.

Knowing that the club would still have a home at which to play would be a massive boost for any would-be investor. It would be a stay of execution that would resurrect the hope that January 18 need not be the blackest day in York City folklore.

To hold at bay the hand of doom hovering over the club would enable any financial package to be put together to satisfy the administrators - even if it meant them having to extend next Saturday's deadline.

It would also provide the wherewithal and willpower to ultimately make the switch to Huntington Stadium provided it had been transformed into an arena worthy of hosting York City Football Club and York City Knights Rugby League Club side by side.

Alliances are now needed. Not division, not rancour, not wrath. What we need to do is to keep the faith and save York City.

Updated: 12:24 Saturday, January 11, 2003