THE future of York City Knights was thrown back into turmoil tonight after the new board of directors pulled out of community stadium talks, stating no agreement could be reached with project leaders City of York Council.

The news came just hours after club owner John Guildford, excluded from the stadium plans by the council, revealed not only that he had stood down as chairman last month to "enable negotiations to progress" but that the directors were "hopeful of an amicable agreement in the next 24 hours" - before the application for the 8,000-seater stadium goes in front of the planning committee on Friday.

The new board, brought in at the end of January to take over negotiations, said they would have accepted the deal that had been offered to Guildford in October but that those terms had not been put back on the table.

The stadium project was meant to see the Knights share York City’s Bootham Crescent ground while their council-owned former Huntington Stadium home gets redeveloped as a new arena for both clubs. However, they have begun their season homeless after being sidelined from the scheme.

The new board’s statement said: "The board of York City Knights regrets to announce it has been unable to agree terms with City of York Council regarding matchday arrangements at the proposed new community stadium.

"For some time the board has been in discussions with the council’s officers to try to reach agreement, and meetings and discussions have been ongoing for a number of weeks.

"The board indicated to the council that it was willing and able to agree the terms of a deal offered to the club back in October last year and that it would make every effort to ensure formal contracts, containing such terms, would be concluded by the end of this week.

"The council has indicated it is not prepared to agree a deal on these terms and that the arrangements proposed in October are no longer available.

"As such the board will discuss the club’s future and will issue a further statement as soon as it possibly can."

Earlier today, Guildford had told The Press: “I can confirm I stood down as chairman on February 12 at the request of City of York Council to enable the new board to reopen negotiations on the contracts that were on the table in October 2014 and withdrawn on November 12, 2014, which I thought were unacceptable.

“The new board are working with the council to agree to the terms of the contracts and are hopeful they can come to an amicable agreement in the next 24 hours.”

The Knights’ opening - and so far only - home game of the season, the iPro Sport Cup defeat to Newcastle on March 15, was played at York RUFC. The next home game is against Coventry Bears on April 26.

One of the new directors, Gary Dickenson, said earlier this month that “constructive and friendly” meetings had taken place with the council “which will hopefully see us reach a positive conclusion soon”.

Meanwhile, the Knights supporters' body today issued a statement calling for Guildford to cede ownership of the club.

It said: “It is with great frustration that it has come to this, but the Knights Independent Supporters Society feel John Guildford’s position as owner of York City Knights is no longer tenable, regardless of him having stepped down as chairman of the club.

“We feel the only way the club can progress is under new ownership, be it JM Packaging Ltd or another interested party.

“We would like to thank Mr Guildford and his family for their hard work over the last 13 years, but the time has come to step down and allow the club to flourish under fresh ownership.”