YORK City Knights fans will be praying for good news today on what is an apparent 'D' Day for the club.

The Rugby Football League have previously intimated that the Knights' prospective new owners - a consortium fronted by sports management consultant Jon Flatman - had until now for their takeover to be completed, saying they were "working towards a date of December 1".

This date corresponds with the start of the financial year in professional rugby league, when player contracts kick in.

However, it remains unclear if the much mooted takeover will be completed, with Flatman - who has previously worked with Super League clubs and the RFL itself - unavailable for comment throughout yesterday.

Last month he confirmed agreement in principle had been reached to acquire all of outgoing owner John Guildford's "shares and associated shares" in the club, while confidence of completion was such that a 20-strong train-on squad has got together behind the scenes under head coach James Ford in readiness for the green light.

However, those players' provisional contracts can only be rubber-stamped once the takeover is finalised, and there has been no confirmation so far from any camp the deal is going through.

The hope is that, if it does, the new owners would quickly come to agreement with City of York Council over playing at Bootham Crescent as part of the community stadium scheme, with the club then being reinstated by the RFL into Kingstone Press League One for 2017.

However, there has been a catch-22 situation: the new owners may not risk buying a club unless they can definitely play at Bootham Crescent; but the council say they cannot make such agreements until the club's "ownership issue is resolved".

The local authority has simply said they have an agreement with landlords York City for "rugby league" matches to take place there.

It is thought Flatman and the council have held talks but the latter has so far only confirmed it had "met a number of interested parties in relation to the Knights", a spokesperson adding: "The private commercial arrangements under discussion for the takeover of the Knights are not for the council to comment on."

Guildford has said he is pulling out of the club, having argued the council's shared stadium scheme made it unviable.

York have been omitted from next year's League One fixture list, though a space remains for a 16th team, the RFL having left the door open for a new-look Minster city club.

Meanwhile, a community stadium update report is on the agenda for City of York Council's executive meeting on December 7.