Cash-strapped Thame United football club, which faces bankruptcy unless it can do a 5m deal, was shown the red card by local councillors.

Thame Town Council planners said 'no' to the club's application to sell its five-acre Windmill Road ground for housing.

Councillors also turned down a plan to relocate the club to Lord Williams's Upper School in Oxford Road.

The final decision will be made by South Oxfordshire District Council.

Sally Hunt, the Ryman League club's chief executive and general manager, said: "Thame United could go into receivership within the next 18 months if we do not find an answer."

She said the club's 1m expansion seven years ago, financed by selling its practice pitch for housing, had left them with too big a clubhouse and not enough playing space.

Two speakers and nine letters objected to the idea - many of them from Arnold Way, the estate built on the club's former practice pitch.

Several committee members said they supported better recreation facilities, but felt the Lord Williams's site was wrong.