Hibernian Football Club (HFC), the Edinburgh-based Scottish Premier League club, has announced the start of construction work on the new East Stand at its Easter Road stadium.

Initial work involved clearing waste ground behind the existing stand ahead of the full demolition of the structure this month, which will be replaced with a new 6,400-seat stand to increase the ground's overall capacity to 20,250. It is expected that work on the new East Stand will not be completed before the start of the 2010-11 season, although the club hopes that some seating will be made available to spectators ahead of the structure's full completion.

HFC chair Rod Petrie said: "Once the new stand is finished, Hibernian will have one of the finest football stadiums in Scotland and the largest, fully-covered UEFA-compliant football stadium outside Glasgow. "The fact that the club is able to build a new stand during what is a very challenging time for football and the economy as a whole, is testament to the rock solid financial footing of the club created by returning a bottom line profit for five consecutive years."