The Albion's planned £40 million new home at Falmer has been described as "unworkable" by consultants.

The consultants, called in by Brighton and Hove Council, say in their report the scheme should not be pursued in its present form.

They also advise the council not to support a planning application for the stadium without first ordering a radical review of the project.

The Argus can reveal the consultants Vantagepoint - who have also worked on the new Wembley Stadium project - believe the proposed stadium would be too expensive and the club does not have the money to back up its existing plans.

They do, however, say a smaller stadium at the Falmer site would be possible.

Their report is believed to have identified a funding shortfall of more than £10 million to build the stadium, saying the club does not suggest how the gap can be closed.

The proposed Falmer stadium is intended to give the club its first proper home since the previous directors sold the old Goldstone ground in Hove in 1995.

Withdean became the Albion's temporary home last August after being exiled in Kent for two seasons.

This evening the council will consider whether to grant the club permission to play at Withdean for another two seasons and install 1,000 more seats.

The club's two main partners, the council and the University of Brighton, are understood to have begun to doubt the Falmer plan's viability before they received the report.

Some senior officers at the council have privately admitted the Falmer stadium is unlikely to be built and the Albion will be permanently based at Withdean.

The University of Brighton is also thought to have serious reservations about the stadium and its environmental impact on the campus and surrounding area.

Doubts about the project to build a 22,000-seat stadium on a downland site on the outskirts of Brighton and Hove come more than a year after the scheme was backed in a council-organised referendum.

Despite widespread public support and the council's backing, the club has not applied for planning permission.

Councillor Mike Middleton, who chairs the council's stadium working group, admitted the report raised concerns but denied the project was in trouble.

He said the report "was not all bad", adding: "Some of the bits in the report differed to what the club's business plan said and they are the things we are looking into really. As far as we are concerned we want it to go ahead and, if the points we want clarified can be clarified, I think it would be great."

University of Brighton spokesman Laurence Bresh said: "We are still waiting to see enough detail on the table before we can make a decision to see whether we are in favour or not; that is how it stands at the moment."

Neither the club or the council will put a date on when they expect a formal planning application, which was first expected last December, to be submitted. Albion chairman Dick Knight said the club had already spent £400,000 on drawing-up a detailed planning application for a "state-of-the-art" stadium, which was now at an advanced stage.

He said: "The consultants' report recommended a smaller stadium, which shows that they don't understand either the potential of this football club or the wider needs of the community in a conurbation that wants to be a city but has no modern arena."