FRIENDS of Bootham Crescent spokesman David Allison expressed his disappointment at last night's decision to make JM Packaging the new 75 per cent plus one share owners of York City.

Allison, who is a key member of the pressure group set up to fight former owner Douglas Craig's threat to oust the club from its traditional home, opposed the motion which was passed with a 78 per cent majority at the Supporters' Trust special general meeting in the Barbican.

Other members present in the 200-strong crowd also shared Allison's concerns over the amount in interest payments that JM Packaging will receive on the sale of KitKat Crescent when the club are in a position to move into a new stadium.

Under the proposal, JM Packaging will provide the club with a total of £1million in vital funds over the next five years. But, in return, the investment will be treated as a loan with an 11 per cent interest rate.

That loan would then be waived on the future sale of KitKat Crescent and only the interest paid to JM Packaging.

If that sale was to be completed in five years then Trust board member Peter Rookes confirmed that JM Packaging would receive £479,000 in interest.

But should KitKat Crescent be sold in nine years, which marks the end of the Football Foundation's required time span for a move to a new stadium under the terms of their £2million loan to the club, then that return would be closer to £900,000.

Addressing Trust members last night, Allison said: "I think in future we will look back and think it was a very cheap way to sell our club."

He also expressed reservations about how the proposal had been presented to the Trust's members, believing that a "No" vote might have precipitated a second offer from JM Packaging after further negotiations.

He said: "The offer has been presented like a gun to the head but I feel JM Packaging have played a game of bluff and I resent that."

On learning the results of the ballot, Allison, speaking on behalf of FoBC, added: "We are disappointed and felt we had to make a case because we do have serious reservations and worries about the financial figures and how they add up. What looks attractive on the face of it, might not turn out to be.

"It's important to have a democratic debate on such issues and I hope lessons have been learnt about informing the Trust membership because we have all got to work together."

Former Evening Press editor David Nicholson also expressed his concern, prior to the vote, that City could, under the tax implications of the new agreement, become "a loss-making division of another company who could pump its profits elsewhere".

Losses of £150,000 were made by the club over the course of last season but, last night, club directors Terry Doyle and Sophie McGill both referred to the collapse of a substantial sponsorship deal that significantly hit income.

Rookes added: "It would be impossible for the club to trade at a loss for the next nine years and any profits made by another company from that would be negligible."

The Friends of Bootham Crescent were also thwarted in their attempts to adjourn the meeting and their calls for a 66 per cent majority requirement rather than a 50 per cent plus one vote.

Football Supporters' Federation chairman Malcolm Clarke, who chaired last night's meeting, pointed out that there was no scope for procedural votes on an adjournment.

Clarke added that he gave the Trust rules "2/10" for clarity over the voting majority issue which was, however, to ultimately prove irrelevant.