County council angry over stadium

How the new Nottingham stadium might look

Nottinghamshire County Council has criticised proposals for a new football stadium in Nottingham as part of a 2018 World Cup bid.

The city council has earmarked Gamston as a location for a 45,000-seat football ground.

But the county council, which owns the land, said it could not support a plan to build on greenbelt land.

Nottingham is hoping to become one of 12 host cities as England bids to host the football world cup.

Our land at Gamston is not for sale

County council leader Kay Cutts

A decision on which country will host the 2018 World Cup will be made in December 2010.

Sixteen towns and cities have put in bids, including nearby Derby and Leicester.

County council leader Kay Cutts said the city council was acting like a "centre forward prima donna" by announcing the proposals for the new location on Monday.

"We've made it very clear that we would only support a bid on the existing Forest site. Our land at Gamston is not for sale.

"We don't believe that changing the location of our premier ground is a good move - it's bad for football, bad for business, bad for local people and risks scuppering our bid to be a World Cup city," she said.

The city council said earlier that this was an "exciting bid" which demonstrated the city's "ability to stage major events".

Mark Arthur, chief executive of Nottingham Forest, said "exhaustive studies of the existing City Ground" had shown it was "impossible to transform the ground into a fully compliant FIFA stadium" fit for the 2018 tournament.

Previous locations suggested for the ground, which would also be used by Nottingham Forest, were Clifton and Holme Pierrepont.