The future development of Oxford United's Manor Ground could be dictated by members of Headington Bowls Club.

United is hoping the sale of the Manor will help fund the club's new stadium at Minchery Farm.

The club's owner, Firoz Kassam, has paid the bowls club £40,000 for an option to release him from a covenant, controlled by the bowls club, stipulating the Manor must "remain an open-air sports ground".

If he takes up the option, he must pay more money or provide the bowls club with other benefits, which are still confidential. Mr Kassam wants to sell the Manor Ground for development to raise money to help fund the club's new stadium and leisure development at Minchery Farm.

But the bowls club has imposed conditions about the nature of the development it would be willing to accept as a neighbour.

Bowls club secretary Colin Harris said: "Times change and we have to put up with that. We don't want to go anywhere else from here. We love it here. This is a unique place."

One condition the bowls club has imposed is that the option to develop the land must be exercised within a definite, but still confidential, time-frame.

Solicitor Mark Taylor, acting for the bowls club, said: "We consulted a barrister. The football club always had the option to go to the Land Tribunal to try to have the covenant lifted. It was against that background that we were negotiating." The law firm of Darbys Mallam Lewis handled the negotiations for both the bowls club and the football club. Sturges Taylor, of Darbys, was acting for the football club, and Mark Taylor, also of Darbys, was acting for the bowls club.

It is unusual for the same law firm to for both parties, but the anomaly occurred because the firms of Darbys and Mallam Lewis merged in January 1999. Previously Darbys had been representing Oxford United. Mallam Lewis had been the law firm representing Headington Bowls Club.

Mr Mark Taylor said: "We cannot tell you what the conditions the bowls club has imposed because the information is commercially confidential." The covenant restricting development at the Manor exists because both United's land at the Manor, and the bowls club's, were originally the property of a company called Headington Sports Ground Ltd, set up in 1924 to manage the ground for the benefit of the people of Headington.

When the two clubs each bought their portions of the ground in 1961, this restrictive covenant remained enforceable by the bowls club.