Well, this is awkward.

The Worcester News reported earlier this week that the Worcestershire FA has made a planning application to upgrade its Claines Lane headquarters.

The plan to install a stand of 100 seats and floodlighting at the ground would allow Worcester Raiders FC to play at a higher level if they are promoted.

But Worcester City Council says it has not received the FA’s application at all.

A spokesman for Worcestershire FA said: “We have employed a professional to assist us with the application and he made it through the Planning Portal website in January.

“We have spoken to Worcester City Council and it would seem that it hasn’t received the application from the Planning Portal. We have asked our agent to get onto the Planning Portal, but until we find out what the exact problem is, we’re not able to say anything more.”

The FA provided the Worcester News with a screenshot of details about the application received from the Planning Portal site.

It has an eight-figure reference number prefixed with PP.

The ‘completion status’ field on the FA’s account read ‘complete’ against the following fields: ‘Forms’, ‘Documents’, ‘Fees’, ‘Payment’, ‘Check Application’ and ‘Submit Application’.

For reference; a dummy application constructed by the Worcester News at the Planning Portal website gave a similar eight figure reference number, beginning PP, but all the fields in the Completion Status field were marked ‘incomplete’, so it appears that the FA, or their agent have done what they should have.

But a spokesman for Worcester City Council is adamant: “No application for this site has been received here.”

That means that there can be no progress on the FA’s plans until that application is received, and there has been at least a six-week delay since the FA think its application was successfully made.

A spokesman for the Planning Portal website said: “We are not able to give you any details of any applications.”

Nine different teams use the Claines Lane site