CREDIT giant Barclaycard has agreed to pay £60,000 it was withholding in a season tickets wrangle with York City.

The money will be refunded to people who tried to buy season tickets using their credit card.

On Saturday, the Evening Press told how Barclaycard had delayed passing on these payments to the club's account amid fears that the club might go out of business during the coming season.

But now the bank has told the Press it has directly repaid the fans and the club has arranged to receive the season ticket payments in another form.

Barclaycard claims the problem arose as result of an "honest mistake" by the club.

Spokesman Ian Barber said: "We agreed to give the club a credit card facility, but on the agreement they won't use it for season ticket sales, only day-to-day use.

"They chose to do this, so we gave that money back."

York City Football Club director of finance Terry Doyle said: "We believed we were able to use it for season tickets. That may or not be mistaken but we did it in good faith and have tried to resolve it in good faith."

Mr Doyle said: "York City Football Club is extremely disappointed with the ongoing problems with Barclays merchanting services and the confusion they have caused to our supporters.

Updated: 14:22 Tuesday, August 03, 2004