Plans by Brighton and Hove Albion for a new community stadium at Falmer have descended into farce.

The farce will become a tragedy unless the parties involved are more flexible.

All seemed to be going well while the club was negotiating with the University of Brighton for the preferred site at Village Way North, with the backing of Brighton and Hove City Council.

Then the club withdrew, saying it would seek another site 200 metres away at Village Way South. The university said it would oppose that site and council leader Ken Bodfish said it left the way clear to look at other sites, including Waterhall Valley just north of Patcham.

Today, university director Sir David Watson explains in The Argus what went wrong with the Village Way North negotiations and how he felt the deal proposed by the club was impossibly tough.

For its part, the Albion hope to gain permission for a site that has fewer obvious difficulties. But with opposition from the university, it may be wrong about that.

Fortunately, the university and the council are talking about getting round a table again. If the club agrees, talks should start as soon as possible.

The site under discussion should be Village Way North because it is the best site and so much work has already been done on it.

Unless all parties get together in a spirit of goodwill, the Albion will be stuck at Withdean for years to come.