FOOTBALL club chiefs have admitted they are powerless to remove pornographic material from their former Internet web address.

Directors at Darlington Football Club pledged to do everything they could to remove the graphic images of naked women.

But they have now admitted that there is nothing they can do to stop porn being peddled on the domain which the club has now vacated.

The Northern Echo understands the address was bought by nameregister.com, a US company, which is now seeking to resell the rights.

It has drawn complaints from the parents of young Quakers' fans, who have accidentally viewed the material.

Quakers' director Luke Raine said: "We have gone down every avenue we can follow. But apparently what has been done is not illegal since the appropriate warnings are posted on the site."

Mr Raine said the club may review its new address - www.darlington-fc.net - because of the similarity between the two domains.

Craig Tooke, of Stockton-based Ask Alix, which provides Internet search facilities, said: "There is no reason why anyone would want to use the Darlington name to sell porn other than as an incentive to get the original owner to buy it back. It is unethical to do this, but there is little that can be done about it."