WORCESTER City Football Club is to leave its St George's Lane home and move to a new multi-million pound 6,000-capacity stadium.

City's new home will be built on a 7.5-acre site at Nunnery Way, between M5 junctions six and seven, by regeneration specialists St Modwen Properties.

The stadium will meet Football League requirements and the club's long-term goal of reaching the professional ranks.

It marks the culmination of years of planning by the Blue Square North club to replace the St George's Lane ground, their home for 102 years.

Worcester City FC and St Modwen have entered into a joint venture partnership agreement at Nunnery Way.

Under the agreement St Modwen, who bought 20 acres of land at Nunnery Way for £3.15million in April, will deliver a new stadium for the club which, when completed, will be acquired by the football club.

A planning application for the stadium, which is allocated in the Local Plan, along with enabling development to support the football club development will be submitted early in 2008.

Worcester City chairman Dave Boddy said: "After many years of frustration and waiting, this is the news that all Worcester City FC supporters have been waiting for.

"After years of endless negotiations, discussions and meetings with numerous parties, we have finally been able to put together a partnership that has the ability to deliver the new stadium that everybody associated with the club has craved for so long.

"We are delighted to be working with such a high profile and reputable company as St Modwen, which has strong roots within the city. We are determined to build a stadium that will have the commercial non-football income streams to help the club climb up the football pyramid and sustain football at a much higher level.

"We are also determined to build a stadium that the city and the community will be proud of."

Anthony Glossop, chairman of St Modwen, said: "The football stadium is the catalyst for the 20-acre development of which it forms the key part.

"The remaining 12.5 acres will be developed into an exciting mixed use scheme which will complement and support the football stadium and bring other commercial uses to benefit the city as a whole.

"We have had initial, very encouraging meetings with the City Council who are very supportive of a new football stadium, and these are ongoing.

"We acquired this site earlier in the year with the specific purpose of bringing forward this development with the football club."