The long-awaited feasibility study into the redevelopment of Merton Greyhound Stadium as a home for Wimbledon Football Club, details of which were released yesterday, has done little to dampen the ongoing speculation over the club's long-term future.

Merton Borough Council have unveiled a plan for a ground with a capacity of just 20,000, well below the figure which the club's owners had been hoping for, at the site which is just beside Wimbledon's old Plough Lane home.

Wimbledon chairman Sam Hammam signalled his displeasure with the proposals when he described council leaders as "callous and cowardly" for failing to come up with a more ambitious proposal.

A spokesman for the council yesterday defended its position arguing that "it is not the council's role or responsibility to build a new stadium for Wimbledon Football Club. We have no money to do that, but if they identify a possible site, we will do all we can to see if it is suitable for a stadium."

Hammam and his partners are believed to have identified a number of sites in the Merton area, but all are apparently parkland sites or playing fields in affluent neighbourhoods where considerable resistance to the construction of a football stadium is likely.