The Aberdeen City Council has requested more information, including environmental surveys. Their decision will thus be delayed by no less than 4 months.

Aberdeen City Council is the body expected to approve or reject Aberdeen FC's scheme to build a 20,000-seat stadium in Kingsford, west of the city. Councillors were expected to vote on it in June but this will now not happen until October.

The decision follows requests from the council and consultees for further information and clarification to inform assessment of the application, including additional environmental surveys.

Executive Vice Chairman of Aberdeen Football Club, George Yule, said: "Although this is later than we had hoped, we are confident that, if planning permission is granted in October, we will still meet the original target timescales of completing the community sports campus and football training academy in 2018 and the new stadium for the 2020/21 season.

"We have already invested considerable resource, both internally and with our team of external experts, in developing a comprehensive planning application package. This important development will deliver real benefit in sporting, social and economic terms for stakeholders and we look forward to it being considered on its merits via the statutory planning process.

"We provided the additional information requested as part of a positive and co-operative two-way process between the Club and the City Council, both of whom are committed to ensuring that the application brought forward is considered rigorously against a comprehensive package of supporting information."

Aberdeen FC at the same time confirmed that any further delay will have impact on the club's plans. At present the goal is to have the first phase (training centre) operational in 2018.