Leicester are to make a formal application to have assault charges against three of their players dropped.

The club's chief executive Tim Davies said lawyers for Paul Dickov, Frank Sinclair and Keith Gillespie had now applied for them to be cleared of charges.

They were accused of carrying out the drunken assault while on a training break in La Manga in southern Spain earlier this year.

Mr Davies said on Tuesday: "There is nothing that links our players with the girls."

Mr Davies said it was not yet known whether the charges would definitely be formally dropped.

But a senior club official said: "It doesn't appear that there is too much evidence any more."

Mr Davies said a formal application would now be made to have all charges against the players dropped.

This would also include evidence uncovered by the News Of The World that the alleged victims "were not businesswomen", he said.

A further hearing to review the new developments is expected to be held within the next two to three weeks at a court in Cartagena, in Spain.

The case is to be heard by the same judge, Jacinto Areste, who released the players on bail in March.

Mr Davies said: "He needs to sit down and consider everything and decide how he is going to proceed."

The tests on underwear and personal items belonging to the alleged victims had been carried out by scientists in Madrid.

"The judge will decide in accordance with the evidence," said Mr Davies. "You would expect that it would be good news."

Earlier a spokeswoman for the club said: "From the start, we have trusted the players and were confident in what they were saying."

Lawyers for the players and the alleged victims were not immediately available for comment.

Matt Elliott, Lilian Nalis and James Scowcroft were released on bail pending further inquiries into the incident, with Scowcroft ordered to pay 20,000 euros (£13,300) bail and attend a Spanish consulate twice a month.

Nikos Dabizas and Danny Coyne were also released. Team-mate Steffen Freund was released earlier without charge.

Part of the new evidence to be looked at by the judge relates to suggestions that the alleged victims, who live in Germany, are prostitutes, a claim which they have denied.

Earlier this month the News of the World reported that one of the women, Ruth Lorenco, 36, offered an undercover reporter sex with her and the two other women - Beatrice Wanjiro, 31, and Martha Wilbert, 37 - in return for £700.

Dickov, 31, a Scottish international, Gillespie, 29, a Northern Ireland player and Sinclair, 32, have always insisted they were innocent.

They were on a training break at La Manga with other members of the team when the allegations were made in March.

After being arrested, they were detained at the Sangonera jail near Murcia for nine days.

All three were released on bail of nearly £200,000 following a 15-hour court session in Cartagena.

The hearing included a dramatic face-to-face meeting or "careo" between one of the players and one of the women, staged to allow the judge to assess the validity of their statements.