York City are still waiting for a five-figure sum to be paid to the club by former chairman John Batchelor as part of an agreement when the Minstermen were brought out of administration.

The Evening Press believes Batchelor promised to pay City £45,000 when the Supporters' Trust assumed ownership of the football club last April but, as yet, has failed to make any of the monthly instalments that were due to start in January and finish at the end of the season.

Batchelor is believed to have agreed to hand over that sum of money as an acceptance of liability for 2003/2004 season tickets paid for by credit cards during the previous campaign.

City's finance director Terry Doyle confirmed that the club had not yet received any money from Batchelor but were still hoping to meet the racing-car chief.

Doyle would not comment further on the financial details of the agreement because of confidentiality clauses but said: "It is public knowledge that an agreement was made with John Batchelor that certain payments would be made to ourselves and the administrators. To my knowledge, he's paid the administrators in full. Unfortunately we have not received any of the payments that are due to us at this moment in time.

"We have tried to arrange a number of meetings with John to discuss the position but due to John's own circumstances we have had to postpone those meetings. I have no reason to believe at the moment that he will not make contact with us to discuss the issue.

"However, you will understand that it puts additional pressure on the club's cash flow in what was going to be a very difficult first season as we took on the conditions of coming out of administration. To date, we are very pleased to say we have been able to honour all of them."

The money that City might have expected from Batchelor's agreement, added to the £60,000 involved in abortive costs to submit a planning application for Huntington Stadium, means the Bootham Crescent club have lost more than £100,000 from this season's budget.

Batchelor's money could have proved critical to cash flow at the club in the second half of the season and will, no doubt, have influenced decisions to trim the wage bill with the departures of Jon Parkin, Lee Bullock, Justin Walker and Aron Wilford.

Under the agreement, the Evening Press estimate that City would have been due £8,000 a month from Batchelor and, without the racing chief's contributions, Doyle admitted: "It has meant that we have had some additional juggling to do."

Former York City administrators Jackson Jolliffe Cork confirmed last night that Batchelor had honoured his agreement in full with them but also added that he believed the football club should also now be receiving payments.

Administrator David Willis said: "An agreement was reached as John Batchelor was keen to help York City on their way in some manner. It was agreed between all parties that he started paying us and, as soon as we had received our stated amount from a combination of John Batchelor and the bank, then the club would get what they had been promised from John Batchelor.

"There were other side agreements between John Batchelor and the new York City Football Club which we were not party to but my understanding is that we

have received everything we are entitled to from John Batchelor and the bank and that all further payments should be reverted to the football club and, if he's defaulted, it's up to the football club to challenge that."

Whether City will want to risk a possible lengthy and costly legal battle with Batchelor is debatable.

The Evening Press contacted Batchelor but he declined to comment about details of the agreement and whether he would be prepared to meet City officials and discuss the matter.

Batchelor did confirm that his racing team would be entering this year's British Touring Championships but would not be racing in the first meeting at Thruxton over the Easter weekend.

He said: "We will be racing a team but will be one meeting late this year because my son has been ill for four weeks. We have reached an agreement with one of the other teams to carry our sponsors' name at Thruxton."

Updated: 11:09 Friday, April 02, 2004