YORK City Knights’ position in the community stadium negotiations has become shrouded in confusion after City of York Council said it was seeking clarification on what it described as “inaccurate and misleading statements”.

The council, which is leading the stadium project, also said it remained keen to continue discussions and that its “intention continues to be that York City Knights will be part of the York community stadium”.

A statement issued by Knights owner John Guildford announced that the board of directors installed to take over talks from him had been “unable to agree terms with the council over the new community stadium”.

The council has issued a response.

It said: “We are surprised and disappointed to hear through the media that the new directors of York City Knights are withdrawing from stadium negotiations as we have received no such correspondence directly from them. The statement made includes a number of inaccurate and misleading statements for which we are currently seeking clarification.

“On March 25, we received an email which gave the council just seven hours to respond to the club’s request for substantial additional resources.

“No reason was given for this deadline nor information which justified their increased expectations. We could not commit to an agreement within this timescale.

“We have written to Stephen Knowles, the Knights director now leading negotiations, to seek clarification regarding the statements made to media.

“We remain keen to continue discussions and our intention continues to be that York City Knights will be part of the York community stadium.”

Guildford last night declined to comment on the council statement, while nobody from the board of directors was available for comment.

The application for the 8,000-seater stadium goes before the council’s planning committee today.