YORK City supremo John Batchelor has launched a savage attack on Granada and Carlton and called for supporters to boycott the under-fire ITV network.

Batchelor, whose bid to take over the ITV Digital platform was shelved after the parent companies, Granada and Carlton, refused to discuss the Football League television rights, believes their actions have caused such damage the England side will ultimately be affected.

Although the Minstermen are on a sound footing, a number of League clubs, from Bradford City to Notts County, have already begun to feel the pinch.

Batchelor said: "The irresponsible actions of Carlton and Granada have already led to a number of clubs, including the oldest in the League, being placed into administration. So serious are the problems at many clubs that youth programmes and squad development are bound to suffer.

"The Premier League and the England squad do not exist in a vacuum, they rely on clubs in the lower divisions to supply them with the talent for the future.

"The actions of Carlton and Granada in failing to face up to their moral responsibility have placed the future of English football at risk. If they continue to behave in this shoddy manner, then it is within the power of the fans and supporters of the England football team and all of the Nationwide League clubs to do something about it.

"As chairman of one of these clubs I would call all supporters of the English game to boycott any channel owned by Carlton or Granada and at the very least ensure they turn off any commercial breaks, thus removing the source of income from these wholly irresponsible companies."

City, meanwhile, have made a third change to their 2002-03 fixtures.

The home game against Lincoln City has been brought forward from Saturday, December 21 - traditionally one of the worst attended because of Christmas shopping - to Friday, December 20, kick-off 7.45pm.

This follows the previous double change of the trip to Hartlepool brought forward to Friday, November 1 and the visit of Macclesfield to Bootham Crescent moved on 24 hours to Sunday, February 2.

Updated: 12:23 Thursday, June 20, 2002