The Scottish charity regulator has admonished the charitable foundation of Rangers Football Club after it allowed the beleaguered club, which had recently gone into administration, to take most of the proceeds of a charity football match and dinner.

OSCR’s inquiry into the Rangers Charity Foundation found there was “misconduct” by trustees in the running of the organisation and urged other Scottish football clubs to examine their relationships with their connected charities.

It said there was a clear conflict of interest in the charity’s close relationship with the club – all three of its trustees were executive or non-executive directors of the club too – and that trustees’ duties were breached because decisions were regularly taken by one trustee instead of the whole board.

However, the regulator also found that the trustee acted in good faith when he agreed to forego most of the money from the fundraising event, because he knew that if he didn’t, there was a risk the administrators would not let it go ahead at all. Then the charity would certainly be out of pocket because it had already incurred costs preparing for it.

In the end, the Foundation received a £25,000 management fee and 10 per cent of the net profits from the event (£38,286), instead of the 60 per cent it was originally slated to take.

But the basis on which the match was to take place was widely publicised and the regulator acknowledged that many attendees would have bought tickets specifically to benefit the football club.

Since the inquiry was opened, in March last year, the remaining trustee of the charity has taken independent legal advice to improve its governance, particularly in relation to the club, and two new trustees were appointed last month.

As a result, OSCR decided not to take any action against any of the trustees, concluding that to do so would not be a proportionate use of its powers.