The Charity Commission is to investigate footballer Didier Drogba’s charity following front page allegations in the Daily Mail that it misled donors and spent just 1 per cent of its income on charitable activities.

But Drogba, a former Chelsea and Ivory Coast footballer, has labelled the Mail’s article “factually incorrect and libellous” and launched legal action against the newspaper.

The Mail reported that of £1.7m raised in the UK by the Didier Drogba Foundation, just £14,000 had gone to good causes, with more than £1m remaining on its books. It also criticised a series of fundraising balls held in London.

David Holdsworth, chief operating officer at the Charity Commission, said: “The Commission has serious regulatory concerns about a number of compliance issues raised and has contacted the charity to seek an urgent response.

“In particular, the Commission has concerns about the administration of the charity and the oversight provided by trustees, all of whom appear to live abroad, as well as allegations that the charity has provided misleading information to donors and the public.

“Further, the charity has raised and accumulated significant sums of money that have not yet been spent and further information is required over the plans to spend those funds. All these issues merit further investigation by the Commission.”

But Drogba claimed in a statement that there has been “no fraud, no corruption, no mismanagement, no lies, no impropriety,” and that the Mail had already caused “an untold amount of damage” to his charity.

“Despite sending legal letters and 67 pages worth of documents advising the Daily Mail that their information was factually incorrect and libellous, they have decided to ignore the facts, so I am issuing legal proceedings against them today,” he said.