Dean Richards, Harlequins’ disgraced former rugby coach, had “central control” over a botched plan to fake a blood injury in a crucial European Cup match last season, according to the disciplinary panel investigating the scandal.

In a written judgment published on Wednesday of hearings into the case, European Rugby Cup’s appeal committee singled out the former England international for much of the blame for the “Bloodgate” affair that has tarnished the image of rugby union. The 99-page judgment clears the club and Mark Evans, its chief executive, from any active role in the episode in which winger Tom Williams bit on a blood capsule, under team instructions, during the Heineken Cup quarter-final in April in order to fake a blood injury that would allow him to be substituted.