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Stuart Gallacher said the Scarlets' cash situation was 'grave'

Llanelli Scarlets boss Stuart Gallacher has said the assembly government's move to call in its new stadium scheme has put the club's future in jeopardy.

Mr Gallacher admitted there was a possibility the rugby club could go into administration and even might not survive until Christmas.

The club has applied to build 450 homes on its current site.

A decision is due in May. The assembly government said it was hard to know why the club had not planned for a call-in.

Mr Gallacher, the Scarlets' chief executive, said: "This call-in has done us great damage."

He said the Scarlets were in financial trouble after the assembly government announced it wanted to put under scrutiny the club's plans to sell off Stradey Park for housing in order to build a new stadium on the edge of Llanelli.

The club estimates the decision to call-in the application will cost it �2m.

The club announced early in 2004 that it had plans to move to a new purpose-built stadium at Pemberton.

	The worst-case scenario would be probably that we wouldn't be able to go as far as Christmas Stuart Gallacher, chief executive

Planning permission was granted earlier this year for the 15,000 capacity arena, which is a joint project with Carmarthenshire County Council.

But the application for the homes on land of the existing stadium site brought objections from people living nearby who said the roads and schools could not cope with influx of people it would bring.

The Stradey application was called in by the assembly government in July, just before it was due to go before the council's planning committee.

Mr Gallacher said the club needed the development to go ahead to clear its debts and invest in the new stadium and could not understand why the assembly government had decided to call in the scheme.

He said: "The rug has been pulled from under our feet for what we believe are the wrong reasons. We see no planning issues at all with our application.

"To have a call-in which won't by heard until next May beggars belief really, but we're told that's the process.

	SCARLETS' FACT-SHEET CLAIMS Stadium delay costs, �2m-plus Flooding risk for the new homes on Stradey Park site 'remote' Density of 450-homes plan 'in middle of recomendations' Club will cease trading 'when current resources spent'

"The Scarlets are not going to fold this week or next week or the week after but we have to have this application passed so we can get on with our future."

He said the club's chairman and long-term benefactor, Huw Evans, was "at the end of his tether" could not continue funding the club until the results of the planning inquiry were known next year.

Mr Gallacher said: "At the moment, it's a grave position. I am, and the board are, investigating any potential source of extra funding we can."

He said the financial situation meant there was a "question mark" over whether the club could survive in the long term, raising the possibility the club could go into administration.

He said: "The worst-case scenario would be probably that we wouldn't be able to go as far as Christmas.

"And that's a fact we have been saying locally for months. People don't seem to believe us."

People living near Stradey have protested at the new homes plan

The club will be handing out 7,000 "fact sheets" at the game against Glasgow at Stradey Park on Friday night.

The club said it will "put the record straight" regarding their financial position, the move to new ground at Pemberton and the housing development at Stradey.

In July, the assembly government said it had received a number of requests to call in the application, which was "of more than local importance particularly in relation to potential flooding".

A Welsh Assembly Government spokesperson said: "The Scarlets would have been advised of a possibility of a call-in by their planning consultant.

"It's difficult to understand why they did not plan for this possibility."