YORK City Knights’ future is in doubt following a costly legal battle with former head coach Dave Woods.

A judge has decided the club must pay 80 per cent of Woods’ legal fees as well as their own. It is thought that total figure could be anywhere between £60,000 and £80,000.

Asked if the club faced bankruptcy because of it, Knights general manager Ian Wilson said: “I don’t know.”

Ironically, Woods brings his current team, Whitehaven, to Huntington Stadium on Sunday for a Kingstone Press Championship match (3pm).

The case arose after Woods made three claims: that the Knights had not paid two months’ notice when they sacked him in September 2011; that they owed him another two months’ pay due to contract technicalities; and that they owed him a £10,000 bonus for keeping the club from relegation.

This was the year the Knights would have gone down from the Championship on league standings, but stayed up after Barrow were relegated as punishment for salary cap breaches and Crusaders had to start again in Championship One, rather than the Championship, after losing their Super League licence.

The second and third claims have been rejected by a judge at Leeds County Court – but the first claim has stood, with the Knights ordered to pay the Aussie £2,800 plus interest.

The Knights made a counter-claim against Woods in respect of overpayments made in expenses and fees, but this was dismissed.

The judgement has been handed down in court, though a “perfected order” confirming the final findings of the case is yet to be signed off by the judge.

The total figure the Knights will have to pay in legal costs will be confirmed at a later date.

“We defended what we thought was right,” said Wilson. “It’s taken the best part of two years to get to this stage. The judge agreed with us on two (of Woods’) claims, including the main one regarding the bonus.

“There will be (legal) costs against the club, however. We don’t know what that figure is yet but we expect it to be a sizeable one – a very significant amount of money for anyone, especially a Championship rugby league club.”

There is no suggestion current personnel will not get paid, but there could be a knock-on effect to next season’s playing budget, providing the club survives.

Chairman John Guildford said in a statement: “It was unnecessary to go through all of this and waste many people’s time and money when it was clear that Woods did not help the Knights avoid relegation by his own performance.

“Unfortunately Woods did not believe this and needed the court to decide, as they have done.

“The only people who gain from this are the lawyers and this should have been avoided. We are glad this is over and the club will now get back to concentrating on the matter of staying in the Championship on our own merit.”

One of the solicitors representing Woods was former Knights player Andy Bailey.

The Press understands Woods had a “no win, no fee” agreement with his barrister, while the Knights had no such agreement with theirs. It is also understood both parties offered out-of-court settlements during the process but none was accepted.

Woods told The Press he made his legal claims after being sacked and receiving an email in which the Knights demanded repayments.

“I’m just glad it’s all over,” he added. “I thought I did a good job there and was dumbfounded as to why I was sacked by email, especially when I was doing work leading into the next season.”

Asked about the Knights’ future being in danger, he said: “It’s not really my problem. This could have been settled before it went to court, or I could have kept my job and continued the work I’d started. I’m very happy at Whitehaven.”