Gillingham chairman Paul Scally has put on hold plans for a new football stadium.

Mr Scally has blamed the global recession on his decision to delay his long-term vision of creating a new arena for the Gills.

He said: “There is no appetite for any development at the moment in the world and that includes Medway and Gillingham unfortunately.

“That’s not to say it’s dead, because it isn’t, but there are more important things that I’m doing on a day to day basis now because the chances of that happening in the next year or two are fairly remote.

“There is obviously not a way of financing the building of a stadium at the moment, but we hope that once we come out of this recession and things get back to something like it was prior to recession then things will improve but that’s not under my control."

A move out of Priestfield has always been a goal for Mr Scally, but it has proved to be a major task. Previous plans for a new stadium at Temple Marsh were scrapped and the latest development was rumoured to be based at Chatham Docks.

The current Priestfield stadium, which has a capacity of 11,500, is not suited for expansion and cannot bring into the club much needed income from outside football.