YORK City Knights have been told they cannot play the first of their all-important Super 8s fixtures this Sunday at Bootham Crescent due to over-use of the pitch - as the community stadium "farce" strikes again.

It is unclear where - or even if - the game, against Kingstone Press League One promotion rivals Doncaster, will now go ahead.

The Press understands there are also issues over Super 8s games against Barrow on August 7 and London Skolars on September 4, with only the match against Hunslet on August 21 given the thumbs up.

The worst-case scenario - highly embarrassing for all parties - is the club fail to fulfil fixtures and withdraw from the league.

The Knights have a contract with City of York Council to play matches at York City's home as part of the council's much-delayed community stadium scheme, which has seen the old rugby league ground at Monks Cross demolished to make way for a new stadium to be shared by both clubs.

A Knights spokesman says the agreement allows them to play on Sundays providing games take place at least 24 hours after a City match.

The football team have a friendly this Saturday, at 1.30pm, and the Knights had put their kick off on Sunday back to 3.30pm to account for this.

However, the council - which has a separate agreement with the football club allowing rugby matches to take place at their ground - argues it has told the Knights since May that July 24 would not be an option.

A City of York Council spokesperson said: “City of York Council has agreements with York City and York City Knights relating to the use of Bootham Crescent.

"This use is subject to certain conditions, including whether a football match has taken place the day before and the impact on the playing surface.

"It’s regrettable the Knights can not play at Bootham this weekend. However, they were first informed this would be the case at the beginning of May, well before any (Super 8s) fixtures had been finalised. This was subsequently confirmed on several occasions during June and July.”

City have arranged three first-team and reserve friendlies for Saturday, Tuesday and the following Saturday. The argument is a fourth game may damage the pitch. The Knights spokesman claims this was unfair given all parties knew since last October the ground might be needed for rugby this Sunday.

He said: “With the contract referring to the 24-hour rule and City playing at 1.30pm on Saturday, we should be okay to play on Sunday – that’s why we asked for a 3.30pm kick off.

“It now appears the council is suggesting the ground is not available because of over-use but City were aware of our date before they booked three friendlies around this date.

"The email on May 9 only says it was likely we could not play and we never received confirmation. We provided the Rugby Football League fixture dates comments form to both City and the council and no response was received before the deadline of June 30. We only received comments after the fixtures were published by the RFL.

“We have tried to keep to the terms and conditions of the agreement and at our last meeting a few weeks ago the council said it was its intentions to keep to the contract terms going forward.

“The council’s contract with the football club reserves every Sunday throughout the season for the Knights to play home games, so it appears the council have the rights to use the ground but won’t transfer those rights to the Knights, even though it has contributed over £50,000 to ensure the pitch was suitable for dual-usage."

The Super 8s fixtures were announced by the RFL last Wednesday.

This part of the League One season sees the top eight teams after the regular fixtures break off into a mini-league, after which the top five go into promotion play-offs.

By finishing in the top four initially, the Knights were given four home fixtures in the Super 8s and three away.

Councillor Mark Warters has pressed for the Knights to be allowed to play at Bootham Crescent as planned.

He said: "This situation continues to be a complete farce.

"The council has a contract in place with York City and has paid for the use of Bootham Crescent on Sundays. Why are we again facing these problems with Knights fixtures?

"There can not be any problems with pitch condition with playing football on the Saturday and rugby on the Sunday at this time of year. Other dual-use groundstaff manage to change from football to rugby within a couple of hours let alone 24 hours, and clearing litter from stands shouldn't be a problem as volunteers did the job last time - although I am led to believe the council was charged extra by York City for the extra work."

The Knights left their old Huntington Stadium home at the end of 2014 to begin sharing Bootham Crescent.

However, a major fall-out between the then stadium project chiefs and Knights chairman John Guildford saw the club left homeless throughout 2015 and needing special dispensation to play at York RUFC and Heworth ARLC.

New directors negotiated a way back into the scheme and the club have played at Bootham Crescent this year.

The Press understands City offered either tonight or tomorrow night as alternative dates for this Sunday's game, but the Super 8s don't start until this weekend.

City say the Knights could play Barrow (August 7) at noon on Saturday, August 6, but the Cumbrians are unlikely to accept that early start given the distance to travel.

City, relegated to the National League last season, are away that weekend but host Macclesfield on Tuesday, August 9 in their first home game of term.

City have also offered Tuesday, September 6 as an alternative for the Skolars match (September 4), but the Londoners probably won't want to travel so far in midweek given they are part-time players. City host Solihull Moors on September 3.