BOOTHAM Crescent Holdings plc is the owner of York City Association Football and Athletic Club and the ground in which they play.

In addition to Bootham Crescent, it also owns the training ground near Wigginton and land near the Bumper Castle pub, where it was originally intended to have the training ground, plus a house in Grosvenor Terrace, where some of the club's trainees live.

BCH was established in July 1999 because the directors were concerned about a clause in Football Association rules which would force the club to give up any surplus assets, like Bootham Crescent and the Wigginton road training complex, if it ever found itself in liquidation.

FA rules required all clubs to pay over any surplus assets to the FA Benevolent Fund or to a similar organisation in such an event.

To protect those assets, the City board recommended the formation of a new company, BCH, which made an offer to acquire all the shares in York City. Each City shareholder was given 21 days to make a decision.

In August 1999, BCH announced the offer was accepted by the holders of more than 146,700 of the total 150,000 shares.

Each shareholder became the owner of exactly the same number of shares in BCH as they owned in City. The club became a wholly-owned subsidiary of BCH.

The FA registration and player contracts remained with the club.

The prime shareholders of BCH are City chairman Douglas Craig, directors John Quickfall, Colin Webb and Barry Swallow, a former club captain. Quickfall is no longer a director of the football club board.

Craig has 123,366 shares and the other three directors 21,588 each. The quartet hold 94 per cent of the total shareholding.

Josh Easby, editor of the City Internet newsletter There's Only One Arthur Bottom, was appointed a director of the club in November. He is not a director of BCH.

By legally separating the football club from the ground ownership, BCH is a much more valuable company than the football club.