The Blues said: “A 60,000 new-build would cost over £600 million and require the club to play away for at least three seasons and, even if the economics were acceptable, the planning risks would likely be insurmountable.”

A back-up plan for a 55,000 seater stadium at the site is also unlikely.

The club said: “Expanding Stamford Bridge to 55,000 also has a number of challenges. The cost per seat of expanding the stands is very high.

“The incremental revenues provide an unsatisfactory level of return, would not even cover the hypothetical financing costs, and the planning risks are significant.”

Consultants calculated that extending the Shed and Matthew Harding stand would cost £275m – or more than £20,000 a seat to increase capacity by 13,000 which would take 25 years to recoup.

Chelsea said the statement did not mean it would be moving to a new ground.

The club said: “We are not in any way stating that the club has made a decision on the need to move.

“This is certainly not the case and the Board and the owner are, as we have continually said, keen to stay at Stamford Bridge.”

Stamford Bridge is currently owned by the fans under the Chelsea Pitch Owners umbrella group.

The club hope to persuade CPO to sell it the stadium to trigger a move to a new site.

A CPO statement said: “We have hoped and felt that there might still be some way to expand the capacity of Stamford Bridge.

“Having seen the detailed analysis, we all felt that a persuasive case was put that this might no longer be feasible or viable.”