FOOTBALL club bosses last night quashed speculation linking them to the sponsorship of a £25m city academy planned for Darlington.

Middlesbrough FC said it had no interest in lending its name to the controversial development, for which borough council chiefs are keen to pursue Government funding.

The authority wants Hurworth School and Eastbourne Comprehensive to be brought together on one site in Yarm Road, Darlington.

Officials insist that the 1,200-pupil academy would have huge benefits, bringing the academic track record and ethos of the Hurworth School to even more youngsters.

But critics are concerned at the prospect of a private sponsor contributing only eight per cent of the cost of the project - about £2m - to gain a large amount of control over the academy and its curriculum.

The Save Hurworth and Rural Education (Share) action group wrote to Middlesbrough FC, which has a £7m training complex in the village, in response to growing local rumours that the club was interested in a deal.

But communications manager Dave Allan told The Northern Echo: "It is not an issue that we, as a football club, would get involved in."

Share has received negative responses from other organisations which it wrote to, however, one firm understood to be in still the frame is Orange, which has a call centre in Darlington.