YORK Wasps have been given a six-day deadline to survive.

At an emergency meeting today between Wasps officials and the Rugby Football League, the club officially handed in its resignation from the league.

However, the RFL has agreed to give the Wasps until Tuesday to find a new owner or put in place finances to secure the club's future.

The meeting was hastily arranged after the Wasps' directors sensationally said the club had folded.

All fixtures were cancelled, and as such the Northern Ford Premiership outfit would have played their last match after more than a century's involvement as a professional rugby league club.

RFL spokesman John Huxley told the Evening Press: "During a meeting at Red Hall (RFL headquarters), the directors of York Rugby League Football Club informed the RFL that the club had ceased trading and as a consequence the Wasps were resigning as members of the RFL.

"The directors have told the RFL that there was a possibility that the club could be sold to new owners or refinanced to enable the club to meet its existing and future debts, and as a consequence fulfil the club's fixture list.

"As a result the RFL have agreed to give the club until Tuesday, March 26 to successfully secure such an arrangement before finally accepting their resignation."

The news comes only a week after York City Football Club was saved from extinction and six months after Wasps announced a sponsorship deal with the New York Economic Development Council (NYEDC), which apparently gave the rugby club a rosy future.

Now it appears that by closing the club down with immediate effect, the door has not been left open for a rescue package.

RFL spokesman John Huxley told the Evening Press that an urgent meeting with Wasps officials had been arranged for today.

Wasps chairman John Stabler delivered the bombshell to coach Leo Epifania and the players before the scheduled training session at 7pm yesterday.

Vice-chairman Russell Greenfield said the decision was taken in the face of dwindling crowds and lower-than-expected sponsorship.

The New York sponsorship deal, brokered by sports advertising company World Rugby League, had not worked out.

"We were promised sponsorship money that would have seen us through this season and some way through next season, but we've only received so much money, nowhere near what we were promised," he claimed.

The Evening Press has not been able to get a comment from NYEDC and World Rugby League.

Wasps chief executive Ann Garvey said the directors did not want the club to get into the debt-ridden state of recent years and so took the decision to close it. "I am a heartbroken woman. I feel so sorry for the players and the coach," she said.

York's only other professional sports club, York City FC, was saved last week after motor racing tycoon John Batchelor bought the club from its former owners, who had threatened to close it down.

Stabler and Greenfield had also bid to buy the football club and its Bootham Crescent ground, with a view to a ground-share and improved links between City and Wasps.

Today, Greenfield said the death knell sounded for the Wasps after their bid to buy City fell through.

Had it been successful, Greenfield reckons the deals involved - plus sponsorship that would have gone hand in hand with a ground-share between the clubs - would have secured the future of the rugby club.

"We first tried to buy the (Huntington Stadium) ground to get finance, but the council wouldn't let us," Greenfield said.

"We then tried to buy York City so we could ground-share and go forward with that.

"It was not our money that would have bought York City; it was brokered deals, deals that would have helped the rugby club. But our bid was not successful.

"I tried everything I knew in business to keep it going and so did my colleagues, but it did not work.

"We tried to get local sponsorship but nobody wanted to know. After much soul-searching, we decided we had to close the club.

"We had a great board, but basically the club haven't had the kind of support York City got. When they were in trouble everybody, rallied round.

"John Stabler is absolutely gutted. He started supporting York as a boy and he tried everything to keep the club going."

York MP Hugh Bayley said: "This is terrible news. We have only just found a secure future for York City, and now this comes and stings us."

The Lord Mayor of York, Councillor Irene Waudby, said: "I think we have all been aware the club has been struggling to get on to a firm financial footing for some time, but this is still very sad news."

Former player Walter Rawson, aged 80, who played for York between 1939 and 1948 and who is treasurer of the ex-players association. "I didn't think it was as bad as that."

He said he used to play in front of crowds of up to 10,000 at the old ground in Clarence Street.

Updated: 14:04 Wednesday, March 20, 2002