IS football the force it once was? The question has to be asked in the light of York City's predicament. Sure, groin strains and early baths hold the same unhealthy fascination for men as they always have. But now we can watch the world's finest footballers succumb to a multi-million pound groin strain on interactive Sky TV. The occasional ping! of a workmanlike hamstring, echoing around a rain-lashed Bootham Crescent, struggles to compete.

How times have changed. In York City's Seventies heyday, more than 8,600 fans turned up. Each week.

That figure certainly puts into perspective the "cup fever" that saw 6,000 tickets sold in a few days for City's clash with Premiership Fulham on Saturday.

For this season's league games, the Bootham Crescent turnstiles click, on average, a mere 2,600 times. Where have the other 6,000 gone?

Every ex-fan's story is different. In my case, regular attendance during the Paul Barnes/Jon McCarthy era dwindled when friends who were fellow supporters moved away, coupled with the onset of fatherhood.

Other, much more long-standing supporters, have given up on City after years of decline. Let's face it, a team that scores less often than Ann Widdecombe is not must-see material.

Then there's the shift in society that has left many more than the Minstermen playing to half-empty houses.

Previous generations had it so tough they regarded two hours spent on a freezing terrace watching a nil-nil draw with Bexhill-on-Sea as entertainment. Our more cosseted generation is more likely to spend its Saturday afternoons sipping skinny lattes in city centre coffee bars.

Too much money in too few hands has also spoilt football. This week the Professional Footballers' Association campaigned for a reduction to the maximum fine clubs can impose on players for minor offences (such as torching a nightclub, presumably). At the moment this stands at two weeks' wages. Incredibly, that would cost the highest paid players more than £100,000 - enough to keep York City solvent for a month.

The league should ignore the PFA's plea and keep this penalty in place - with the proceeds of fines going directly to smaller clubs. Considering that several Premiership players get drunk and duff someone up every week, this could prove to be a valuable source of income.

Alternative funding arrangements certainly need to be found to end a vicious circle that threatens City - few paying fans, no money to invest, poor results, fewer paying fans.

York City chairman Douglas Craig clearly blames the stay-away supporters for the club's problems. Nothing to do with me, he says as he prepares to sell-up York's heritage and swan off to his broker's.

Wimbledon FC must have been delighted to learn that Mr Craig was on the FA panel deciding whether that club can move to Milton Keynes, a proposition bitterly opposed by its supporters. Few people have more experience of ignoring the fans that our Doug.

York City must be saved, for two good reasons. Firstly, it is part of the fabric of the city. And secondly, I want to be able to take my son to watch his home team when he's old enough.

So here's my plan. Bootham Crescent should be made the new national stadium.

The ground costs £4.5 million. Add in the price of an extra 80,000 seats or so, and the FA gets the whole thing for about £10 million. A snip, then, considering the revamp of Wembley is set to cost a Dome-like £715 million.

And wouldn't it be wonderful for all those yuppies, installed in their luxury Crosby-built flats next to the ground, to suffer the regular company of 90,000 drunken English fans scattering kebab lettuce on their doorsteps?

Updated: 10:46 Wednesday, January 23, 2002