Bradford Bulls have been forced to switch their money-spinning derby with arch rivals Leeds Rhinos to next Sunday afternoon.

The pair were set to clash at Valley Parade at 8pm on Friday night in front of the Sky Sports cameras but fears for crowd safety following last week's riots in the Manningham area have led to the change.

"The decision has been taken after consultations with several official bodies and we feel it is the right one in the circumstances," said Bulls media manager Stuart Duffy.

"We should be in a position to announce the kick-off time later today after further talks with Sky but it will start no later than 3pm.

"Sky would still like to fit the game into their schedules and their thoughts will obviously affect the kick-off time."

Safety is clearly the main criteria for the club but there will undoubtedly be concern at the current situation after yesterday's 44-4 win over Castleford attracted a crowd of just 9,287 - the club's lowest in Super League since the switch to Valley Parade at the start of the season.

Their tussle with Leeds traditionally attracts the biggest crowd of the season with a Super League record gate of 24,020 attending the game at Odsal in September 1999.

But despite the current uncertain climate the Bulls are hopeful that the fans will come back in big numbers on Sunday for one of the highlights of the season.

Bradford City have confirmed that the new top-tier of the main stand will be available for the first time raising the capacity by over 4,500 to around 25,000.

Meanwhile the Bulls have announced two more fixture changes to meet Sky Sports requirements.

The clash with Warrington at Wilderspool will be brought forward from Sunday, August 5 to Saturday, August 4 and the re-match with Leeds at Headingley will now be on Saturday, August 11 and not the previous evening. Both games will kick-off at 6.05pm.

The Bulls Academy side were held to a 20-20 draw by Hull KR at Odsal on Saturday.

Andy Smith (2), Paul Smith and Nicky Saxton scored tries and there were two goals from Ben Western.