Bradford City have been told they cannot play reserve matches at Park Avenue's ground.

The FA Premier Reserve League have rejected Horsfall Stadium and Farsley Celtic's Throstle Nest as unsuitable venues to host City's second string next season.

The Bantams are keen to move reserve games away from Valley Parade to protect the pitch which is already heavily used because of the ground-share arrangement with the Bulls.

But they have been hampered by a lack of suitable alternatives.

City managing director Shaun Harvey said: "The benchmark is Football Conference standard and it's long been a problem in the West Yorkshire area that there isn't a non-league club that meets that level.

"The league have said that neither venue we put forward meets the criteria.

"We have written back to them for further confirmation to find out what either ground would need to do to meet the appropriate standard.

"The fall-back position would be to play at Valley Parade, where some of the games would have taken place anyway regardless of another venue.

"The pitch has held up remarkably well with the Bulls games which is all credit to the people who deal with it.

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"The area of grass that hasn't grown, by the touchline on the Sunwin Stand side of the ground, will be re-seeded after the Bulls play Leeds next week.

"But in an ideal world, our reserves wouldn't play here at all.

"There is still time and we could change venues as and when we find somewhere else suitable. But it is not proving very easy."

Park Avenue spokesman Tim Clapham said: "It's disappointing. We will also be making inquiries to find out where we did not meet their criteria."

City's first reserve game of the season is at home to Bolton on Tuesday, August 14.