DAVE FLETT looks to a more settled future for York City.

HORRIFIED observers need look no further than 1988 FA Cup winners Wimbledon to discover what happened to the last English football club without a home.

Having lost their traditional home ground - Plough Lane - the South London club endured a nomadic existence before eventually relocating 70 miles north to Milton Keynes.

Red-faced football regulators have changed the rules since then and, for York City, the lack of a home ground meeting Football League requirements next season was more likely to mean extinction.

This appeared a more frightening possibility with the planning application to relocate to Huntington Stadium seemingly dogged by a new traffic, parking or athletics consideration every day.

Even if permission had been granted by City of York Council, it was estimated that the required improvements would take until the end of April 2005, leaving the club reliant on the Football League's willingness to allow the club to play in a ground under construction and resembling a building site.

The club's revenue-making potential under those circumstances would also have been severely restricted, which would have significantly hampered the club's progress on and off the pitch.

That is why the importance and achievement of York City Football Club brokering a long-term solution with landlords Bootham Crescent Holdings to continue playing at its own home ground cannot be over-estimated in terms of the Minstermen's future prospects.

The football club's destiny now lies in the safest possible hands - those of its fans, represented by its owners, the Supporters' Trust, and a professional board of directors.

Bootham Crescent Holdings was, of course, the company that assumed ownership of the football ground under then York City Football Club chairman and majority shareholder Douglas Craig, who was also on the panel that sanctioned Wimbledon's move to Northamptonshire.

Craig sold York City Football Club, but kept Bootham Crescent, and served an eviction notice on the Minstermen, leaving them without a lease beyond this summer.

Therefore, in immediate terms, today's announcement means that Nationwide League football will continue to be played in the city of York next season with the league seeking assurances of the club's home venue for the 2004/2005 campaign by the end of this month.

But, moreover, the football club's board can now plan for a more certain future and build on the excellent work it has achieved in the last ten months at Bootham Crescent.

Since the Supporters' Trust put together a rescue package to end the dark days of administration and assumed control back in March, finances have been impressively managed by the board and the club's condition has improved dramatically from a critical to a stable condition, with income matching expenditure.

The club's league position also remains the same, despite its wage bill being trimmed by two-thirds, and the division appearing stronger this season.

Now, first team manager, Chris Brass, will be able to enter into contract negotiations with key players who, until today's news, would have been reluctant to commit themselves to the football club beyond the end of this season, while the club's home ground and very existence remained in doubt.

Under company law, the football club board were also in no position to offer new deals while the ground situation remained unresolved.

Brass, the 28-year-old who has done an impressive job in his first season as a football manager, can also start thinking about which new players he would like to bring to Bootham Crescent to improve his team within a budget that is in sensible relation to the club's income potential.

The budget will, no doubt, be higher than any that would have been imposed after any move to Huntington. Fans know that while their representatives in the Supporters' Trust own the football club, its financial future, managed by the club board, is unlikely to be gambled on again.

Minstermen followers can also relax, safe in the knowledge that the club are free to extend their 71-year stay at their traditional home ground for the foreseeable, or until a point may come when the club, not its landlords, feels it could be an appropriate time to relocate and sell-up.

For now, Chris Brass will be hoping that York City fans celebrate today's news by turning up in their droves at their stadium steeped in history to support his side in their push for a play-off place.