By Tom Fordyce BBC Sport Online

Dark clouds hang over Fulham Football Club.

On Sunday, Jean Tigana's relegation-threatened team take on Middlesbrough in a Premiership game they desperately need to win.

Off the pitch, the club is in even worse straits. The dream of turning Fulham into one of the country's biggest clubs is becoming a nightmare.

Will Al Fayed ever lift silverware for Fulham again?

Last summer Fulham announced the biggest annual deficit ever recorded in British football.

On Thursday, newspaper reports revealed that owner Mohamed Al Fayed has signed a �50m agreement that could see Craven Cottage demolished and replaced by luxury flats.

Fulham, currently ground-sharing with Queen's Park Rangers, are staring into the abyss.

While Al Fayed insists that the deal to sell Craven Cottage is merely a "precautionary move" and that the intention is still to return to the ground that has been the club's home for 106 years, many fans now fear the worst.

Fulham could be facing a future where they are homeless, stripped of their main asset and burdened with huge debts.

Since the club abandoned their original plans to redevelop the Cottage as "too expensive" last month, there has been no attempt made to draw up alternative proposals.

Officially the search is still on for alternative sites in the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, but the options are extremely limited.

In the meantime, the deal to use Loftus Road will continue - and while it does, Fulham's potential revenue suffers.

Al Fayed has brought Bad things to Fulham

Wimbledon faced extinction because their tenancy agreement at Selhurst Park crippled them financially.

Fulham's home attendances are bigger, but they are still a club who owe their Premiership place entirely to the subsidies of Al Fayed.

Already the pinch is on. Just �2m was spent on new players last summer, compared to an outlay of �40m the year before.

Last week Al Fayed announced that Fulham Ladies, Europe's first professional women's team, would be going back to part-time status.

When Al Fayed took over the club in May 1997 and promised promotion to the Premiership within five years, supporters could not conceal their delight.

Multi-million pound signings, European football, a redeveloped all-seater Cottage - it all seemed too good to be true.

Doomsday scenario

Maybe it was. Fulham's rise is, by ordinary business practices, unsustainable.

The fans have tasted life in football's promised land. But at what cost?

Is the loss of Craven Cottage and a penniless nomadic existence a price worth paying for two brief seasons among the elite?

Should Jean Tigana's men slip into the Nationwide League, it could be the beginning of a slide that carries them right down into football's basement.

Forget the financial woes that have afflicted Sheffield Wednesday, Derby and Coventry since they fell from the Premiership.

At least those were clubs that had spent considerable time in the top flight, historically enjoyed big support and still have big all-seater stadia.

Once Fulham begin to fall, there is little to prevent them tumbling all the way back down to Division Two or beyond.

Although there is no suggestion of Al Fayed walking away at present, it is true to say his investment appears to be slowing up.

If the sugar-daddy does choose to cut his ties with Fulham, the future becomes bleaker still.