A TOTAL of £90,000 is still needed to help York City complete the purchase of Bootham Crescent.

The Football Foundation's loan of £2million left City just £100,000 short of the sum required to assume a 76 per cent controlling interest of Bootham Crescent Holdings.

A loan notes scheme has raised £10,000 towards that purpose but City's board and the Supporters' Trust board last night called on fans to devise new fund-raising ideas to help meet the shortfall.

The acquisition of the majority shareholding from BCH directors Douglas Craig, Barry Swallow and Colin Webb is expected to be finalised by February, pending completion of complex legal and tax issues.

And, speaking at the Supporters' Trust's third annual general meeting last night in the Tempest Anderson Hall, City managing director Jason McGill said: "We need to find another £90,000 however difficult that might be. The money raised will pay the legal fees, stamp duty and other things that will enable us to complete the Bootham Crescent deal. It will not be going to Douglas Craig."

City's last loan notes scheme, introduced to help bring the club out of administration, raised £178,000.

The latest initiative might only have raised a small fraction of that amount but donations of at least £100 can still be made.

Supporters can hand over money to the club on a loan basis for the single purpose of meeting the current shortfall over the BCH deal but are unlikely to be reimbursed.

The club are also appealing to fans for other ideas to generate funds with Trust chairman Richard Snowball adding: "The money has to be raised from somewhere and we need more ideas."

In the last 12 months, it was also revealed that the Trust had donated £42,500 to help the club meet its commitments.

The Trust have also been approached to find a new commercial and marketing director for the football club's board.

A resolution that recommended restoring an equal number of elected Trust board members on to the football club board was almost unanimously passed last night and the Minstermen's directors have already outlined the kind of person they would like to join them.

Commercial manager Peter Salter was made redundant in the summer and now the football club are looking for somebody to fill the role on a voluntary basis.

Communications director Sophie McGill said: "The commercial side has been somewhat neglected and we are looking for a successful applicant for the position of commercial and marketing director and have circulated a job description to the Trust board."

A second resolution that recommended the restoration of the position of chairman at the football club was also approved despite opposition from members of the club board, who maintained the same stance as when Steve Beck stood down from the role.

Jason McGill said: "We are a small business and any small business normally has a managing director and a group of directors with responsibilities.

"We don't believe there's a requirement for a chairman in the traditional sense of the position and we are running the club along the same principles of any small limited company."

Trust board member Paul Rawnsley also added that the Supporters' Trust Code of Conduct would probably be amended and updated following the completion of the Bootham Crescent deal and the publication of Project Spirit - a review of the corporate governance framework at the club.

Updated: 11:13 Friday, December 03, 2004