On Friday afternoon it reacted to Mr Batchelor's plan - should he be successful in his bid to buy Mansfield Town - by saying it would be unlikely to happen.

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A spokesman told Chad: "The club's membership of the Football League is in the name of Mansfield Town and this cannot be changed without the League's approval."

It is also believed that the League is unahppy at the idea and would be likely to veto any proposal to change the club's name.

However, if the Stags were to be relegated to the Blue Square Premier - then the League would have no say over any renaming.

The spokesman added that the League still held jurisdiction over the Stags' name until its annual conference at the beginning of June.

After hearing the news, Mr Batchelor - who fell out with the body during his short-time as owner of York City - lambasted the League for its 'short-sighted approach'.

He told Chad: "In my experience of working with the League - and my observations of it since - they are likely to be underused, over-paid and short-sighted.

"If their opinion is that Mansfield Town can't be re-named Harchester United while in the Football League, then there is an easy solution - get relegated and then get promoted.

"Or, alternatively, if they were an elightened group, they could fully understand the benefits of having Harchester United in the League with all the publicity and commercial activity that would surround it.

"It is upto them, but it is no surprise to me if negativity abounds.

"There is always a way around things."

A spokesman for the Conference added: "Any name change would have to go to the board of directors and also be approved by the Football Association.

"I cannot speak about the Mansfield Town idea as I have seen nothing about it and it is all hypothetical.

"But all applications to change names of clubs are given serious consideration.

"This has been done in the past, for instance recently Gravesend and Ebbsfleet became Ebbsfleet United and they have done ok out of it.

"But the name of a club means a lot to people and any attempts to cvhange a name for commercial reasons can backfire.

"For instance Margate changed to Thannet to reflect the area and the fans did not like it and voted with their feet."