BRISTOL Rovers has lost its appeal against supermarket chain Sainsbury's over its current ground in Horfield.

Judges at the Court of Appeal have this morning ruled that a contract between the club and the retailer was ended lawfully when Sainsbury's pulled out of building a new store at the Memorial Stadium.

The panel of three judges upheld a previous decision which said Sainsbury's had not acted in bad faith when its board decided to terminate the £30million deal in 2014. The sale of the site to Sainsbury's had paved the way for Rovers to build a new stadium in South Gloucestershire.

A spokesman for Bristol Rovers said: "We will be looking closely at the judgement to assess its implications for the club and its future and will make a further statement in due course."

A Sainsbury's spokesman said: "We're pleased that the court has robustly dismissed Bristol Rover's appeal and ruled that the conditional contract lawfully ended in November 2014.

"We have been trading in Bristol for over 45 years and will continue to work with the local community via our existing stores which are extremely popular with customers."

The club's planned £40million on University of the West of England land in Stoke Gifford will still go ahead, however, after the billionaire Al-Qadi Jordanian family bought a 92 per cent stake in Rovers last month.

The 21,7000-seater stadium already has planning permission from South Gloucestershire Council.

Wael Al-Qadi said in February: "Once we are ready to go ahead with that project, we will."