"Provided the Olympic stadium track is retained, UK Athletics supports Crystal Palace Football Club's relocation plans, which include the establishment of a community track at or near Crystal Palace Park," Warner, who is in Christchurch, New Zealand to watch the IPC Athletics World Championships, told insidethegames.

Warner, a Palace season ticket supporter who has supported the club since 1972, favours an initiative which has been a matter of discussion between the football club and the Mayor of London's office since June, when the club was taken over from Simon Jordan by the consortium of wealthy supporters known as CPFC 2010.

While the Park is under the aegis of Bromley Council, the sports centre site is the responsibility of the Greater London Authority.

Palace are expected to propose a community athletics track and a swimming pool in their plans, which have already been drawn up by architects.

It is also believed that the Selhurst Park site, of which Sainsbury's already own a part, would be totally redeveloped by the supermarket owners in the event the football club move on, with the store being extended and other buildings, including flats and perhaps a school, being established.

For Palace, such a move would be a return to their roots, given that they played at the cup final ground within Crystal Palace Park from the time of their formation in 1905 until 1914, when the club was obliged to move to Herne Hill at the request of the Admiralty, before settling in their current purpose-built home in 1924.

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