The European and English champions Wasps must decide by the end of the year whether to remain at Wycombe Wanderers' Causeway Stadium or move back to Loftus Road.

The Rugby Football Union has told Wasps, in their third season at Wycombe after being forced to vacate Loftus Road when Fulham took up a tenancy to ground-share with Queens Park Rangers, to make up their mind by the end of December.

QPR threatened to take Wasps to court over the matter earlier this year, claiming the club was contractually bound to return to Loftus Road. Rangers' chief executive then was David Davies, who now occupies the same position with Wasps.

The move to Wycombe has proved successful, with Wasps winning four trophies in that time, but the ground capacity is only 10,000 and the chances of increasing it substantially are hampered by issues such as access to the ground.

"I suspect that, if we were stuck with a capacity of 10,000, we would need to move back to Loftus Road," said Davies. "In saying that, the agencies involved with us at Wycombe are looking at ways of increasing the number the Causeway Stadium is able to hold.

"We are looking into all possibilities of staying but Loftus Road has a current capacity of 19,000 [the club is looking to increase it to 28,000] and we know there is a market for a top European team to be playing in the west of London."

Leicester's attempt to swell the capacity of Welford Road to at least 18,000 took a step forward yesterday when the local council agreed to sell the freehold of the land the ground is built on to the Tigers as well as land needed for the redevelopment of a stand.

"We are delighted to have reached an agreement," said Leicester's managing director David Clayton. "The next step is to obtain planning permission for the new stand. We are hoping to get it by the end of this month."