An advert for Rangers Football Club (RFC) has been cleared following 78 complaints it described itself as the "most successful" in Scotland.
The radio, press and email ads said: "Join Scotland's most successful club at Ibrox (stadium)" as part of a promotion on season tickets.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said 78 complainants believed the "most successful club" claim was misleading because they understood it had only been formed in 2012.
Defending the ad, the RFC said previous owner-operator The Rangers Football Club Plc, named as Oldco, went into administration in February 2012, but the business and assets were bought by another corporate entity, now known as the Rangers Football Club Ltd, or Newco.
The club provided an extract from a decision by an independent commission appointed by the Scottish Premier League (SPL), which said "a club is treated as a recognisable entity which is capable of being owned and operated and which continues in existence despite its transfer to another owner and operator".
It also provided a letter from the European Club Association (ECA) concerning its continuing membership after the liquidation, which stated that, although run by a different legal entity, it considered RFC was still the same football club, having the same registration number with the Football Association, the same fans, the same stadium, the same club coefficient ranking and the same trophies, and it therefore recognised RFC as a founding member of the ECA despite the change of ownership.
The ASA said that, while Newco had not taken on all of the debts and liabilities of Oldco when it bought its assets and business, "we noted that both an independent commission appointed by the SPL and the ECA had reached the conclusion the football club RFC was a recognisable entity in its own right, and that it had continued in existence despite being transferred to another owner".
The ASA added: "We further considered that consumers would understand the claim in question related to the football club rather than to its owner and operator.
"We therefore concluded it was not misleading for the ad to make reference to RFC's history, which was separate to that of Newco."
A Rangers' spokeswoman said: "The club was never in any doubt that this would be the outcome.
"It was a ridiculous claim and we knew the ASA would take the same view as the football authorities, the ECA, (independent commission chairman) Lord Nimmo Smith and the panel of the London Stock Exchange."
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