Oldham Athletic Football Club's (OAFC) bid to relocate to a new 12,000-capacity stadium at Failsworth have been dealt a blow by the Charity Commission.

The npower League One club had planned to build a new £20m venue on the 30-acre (12.1-hectare) site as part of a regeneration project in partnership with Oldham Council. A sub-committee of the council's cabinet - Failsworth Trust Committee - applied to transfer the stadium site's charitable trust status to two other locations in Failsworth.

However, the Charity Commission has informed Oldham Council that it doesn't believe the proposed exchange would be in the interests of the charity. In a statement, OAFC's board of directors said: "Having waited patiently for many months for an outcome to this lengthy and frustrating process, we are not only shocked by this outcome, but bitterly disappointed.

"Our objective has always been, and remains, to provide a solution to the long term future of OAFC. Boundary Park cannot provide that, and it would appear that yet another genuine opportunity to cement that future has passed Oldham by."