Coventry City football club is to make a last-minute bid to stage football matches at the 2012 Olympics.

The club has put forward the 32,000 seater Ricoh Arena for the competition after Aston Villa withdrew its ground due to redevelopment plans.

West Bromwich Albion and Birmingham City are unable to meet the International Olympic Committee’s 30,000 seat requirement, leaving the door open for Coventry to make a bid.

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog) has confirmed plans to replace Villa Park with another Midland venue. Leicester City and Derby County are also making a bid.

Daniel Gidney, chief executive of the Ricoh Arena, is confident Coventry City can successfully stage the eight preliminary matches which Villa Park was scheduled to host.

“We have been announced as a venue to host pool matches for the Rugby World Cup in 2015 which proves we have the facilities and organisational abilities to meet the demands of running an international tournament,” he said.

“As well as being the home of Coventry City, we have experience of staging international football matches since we secured a sell-out attendance at an England under-21 qualifier against Germany.”

“We meet the requirements of having an all-seater stadium and a capacity of over 30,000 and this would be an ideal way of further showcasing the Ricoh to a world-wide audience.”

The Ricoh Arena bid is likely to be supported by Coventry City Council and Advantage West Midlands and a decision is expected to be made by Locog before the end of the year.

Tom Clift, manager of the Coventry and Warwickshire 2012 Partnership, said: “Being selected to host an Olympic sport as part of the London 2012 Games would be immense and a tremendous honour.

“You only have to look at the 2005 International Children’s Games, 2007 UK School Games, the Heineken Cup and England under-21 internationals, to see that Coventry and Warwickshire is highly capable of staging Olympic football and I can think of few venues better equipped than the Ricoh Arena.”