Residents of South Yorkshire might soon have another ruling to argue about: "Should Tinsley cooling towers have been demolished to make way for a giant stainless steel football?"

Sheffield's doomed iconic towers have been facing the final whistle for years, with plans to build a £60m biomass power
station on the site gathering pace.

Now former Sports Minister Richard Caborn has announced that a huge football sculpture made from stainless steel could also be included in the development.

The Sheffield Central MP, who is leading England's campaign to host the World Cup in 2018, said the structure would become the city's equivalent of Anthony Gormley's Angel of the North in Gateshead.

Mr Caborn unveiled the proposal at a dinner to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Sheffield FC, the world's oldest football club.

The dinner, at Cutler's Hall in Sheffield, was attended by a host of big names from the global game, including Fifa president Sepp Blatter and Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti.

The planned monument would feature a football, imprinted to look like the earth, held by a stainless steel lattice tower.

It would bear a striking resemblance to the World Cup trophy, which depicts two human figures holding the earth aloft.

Mr Caborn told diners the structure presented an opportunity to celebrate two commodities that Sheffield had introduced to the world – football and stainless steel.

"Both inventions had a profound impact globally," he said.

The football sculpture is not the first art project to be suggested for the towers site, which is located near sewage works just a few yards from the Tinsley Viaduct, an elevated section of the M1 motorway.

Previous suggestions have included painting the towers in bright colours and using artificial flowers to make them look like vases holding white roses.

Other potential art projects are expected to go out to public consultation next year.

Site owners E.on decided earlier this year to demolish the cooling towers, which once formed part of the Blackburn Meadows power station.

The energy company wants to build a biomass power station on the site but has pledged £500,000 for a permanent piece of art to be included there.

A spokeswoman for E.on said that the football proposal had come as a "surprise", but the company would contribute towards the cost of whichever art project was selected.

She added that the project could also be constructed at another site in the city.

"The offer has been made to Sheffield Council in recognition of the importance that the cooling towers had for so many people.

"We have been looking at this for years and years and there is no way that the demolition is not going to happen.

"There is the potential, because it is quite a big site, for the artwork to be constructed on the site alongside the biomass project and alongside other potential uses of the site.

"But we're saying 'let's be flexible about this'; it may be that the people of Sheffield will say there is somewhere more suitable for a piece of art than near a sewage works."

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