Rugby League World Cup organisers have expressed their regret at being unable to stage an England game in Bradford later this year.

But they say the city will be top of their list as a venue for the next World Cup especially if the new 30,000 all-seater redevelopment of Odsal Stadium comes to fruition.

World Cup 2000 operations manager Jason Harborow said: "We were very keen to take an England game to Odsal and were happy that the current facilities would have been sufficient to cope with such a game.

"The Bulls were also anxious to stage a game but with work on the re-development possibly starting at the end of the season we had no guarantee that the match could have gone ahead.

"At that stage we made an approach to use Bradford City's Valley Parade but unfortunately they said they were unable to accommodate us due to their soccer commitments.

"The timing is unfortunate but we want to emphasise to the Bradford public just how much effort went in to trying to stage a game there.

"The next best thing was to put on the England v Fiji game at Headingley and arrange for special buses to take Bulls fans to the game which we will be doing.

"With a new stadium in place, Bradford would certainly be a key venue for the next World Cup."

Bulls chairman Chris Caisley also expressed his disappointment at the city's failure to attract a prestige game.

"It is a bit of a blow for the game in the city as we would have loved to have been involved and I am sure our fans would have backed it with their usual enthusiasm."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.