HAMPSHIRE League 2004 will know by tomorrow whether it has the backing of the Hampshire FA Sanctions Committee.

There are fears that it may not get the green light after Martin Turner, chairman of the HFA Rules Revision and Sanctions Committee, suggested that the new league would serve no real purpose.

Views that it would act as a bridge between the local leagues and the extended Wessex League were refuted by Turner, who said: "Because the new Hampshire League would have no status from the FA, clubs would have a better chance of advancing from their own local leagues."

Turner, who is president of the Hampshire FA, said a new Hampshire League would just go on bleeding local leagues of their best clubs. He himself founded the North Hants League, who have lost so many clubs to county football that they have now folded.

Five of the clubs who have entered the new Hampshire League have North Hants roots and Turner admitted that if the new county division didn't get the green light, there would still be time to start up a North Hants division again.

But Bob Crompton, who has led the campaign to keep the Hampshire League in the wake of the exodus of county clubs to an extended Wessex League, insisted: "If clubs get to the stage where they can move up to the Wessex League, they will certainly be able to advance from the new Hampshire League.

"All our clubs will be affiliated to their local associations so all they have to do is get their approval."

Southampton FA president Crompton explained: "The new Hampshire League is for clubs who can't meet Wessex League ground grading requirements and it will be a suitable refuge for those who have to come back from the Wessex League in two years time.

"Facilities are in line with old county league standards and I doubt very much whether any of the 16 clubs who have applied for Hampshire League 2004 would want to go back into their local league.

"At this stage I don't know how they could anyway. A lot of our clubs are from Southampton who have already drawn up their constitution for next season."

The HFA Rules Revision and Sanctions Committee are staging an emergency meeting tomorrow , with the proposed new Hampshire League top of the agenda. It will determine whether they back it or not.

If the Sanctions Committee do turn them down, Crompton says they will appeal, but he admitted: "Time is running out.

"We need a decision as soon as possible.

"I'm disappointed it has got to the stage where there is some doubt about the new league being sanctioned, bearing in mind we have had discussions with Martin Turner, John Ward and Lawrence Jones, the chief executive of the Hampshire FA, who intimated there wouldn't be a problem and that, indeed, they would welcome the new league."

Turner has been accused of trying to "torpedo" the league, but he insisted:

"No way. But it's my job to see that any new league is properly constituted and properly sanctioned.

"All the county association is interested in is what's best for football in Hampshire."

After 108 years of providing county class football, the old Hampshire League was dissolved on Saturday with all bar four clubs - M&T Awbridge, Mottisfont, East Lodge and Broughton - moving across to the Wessex ranks for next season.

But the meeting provided a further blow for Crompton and Co as clubs used their weight to slash the grant offered to the proposed new Hampshire League 2004 by 50 per cent, from £10,000 to £5,000.

Now the league has closed down, all its funds (mainly accumulated from FA grants and club fines) are to be divided between the clubs and any grant paid to Hampshire League 2004 would shrink their slice of the cake.