David Duckenfield, the former South Yorkshire police chief superintendent who was in command of the FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough in 1989, where 96 people died, has failed with a further application to have his prosecution for manslaughter stopped.

The judge who will preside over Duckenfield’s trial, Sir Peter Openshaw, rejected his application for a stay of prosecution, following a hearing at Preston crown court on Thursday.

The trial, on criminal charges of causing death by gross negligence manslaughter of 95 people attending the semi-final, is scheduled to start in Preston on 14 January. He has already pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Duckenfield, 73, previously applied in June for the prosecution to be stopped on legal grounds, but Openshaw dismissed that application, and also lifted a stay on prosecution, which had been ordered following previous proceedings in 2000.

The Crown Prosecution Service has not sought a manslaughter charge against Duckenfield in relation to the 96th person who died, Tony Bland, who was 18 when he went to support Liverpool at the semi-final against Nottingham Forest.

Bland suffered critical brain injuries in the crush on Hillsborough’s Leppings Lane terrace, and was placed on life support in hospital. The life support was turned off four years later, in 1993, following a court application made by his family.

According to the law in 1989, a charge of manslaughter cannot be applied in relation to a person who has died longer than a year and a day after the alleged criminal acts occurred.

Graham Mackrell, the former secretary of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, which has Hillsborough as its home ground, faces two criminal charges for alleged breaches of safety legislation and of his duties as the club’s safety officer, and will stand trial at the same time as Duckenfield.

Three other men are charged with criminal offences, which are due to be heard in September next year. Donald Denton, a former South Yorkshire police chief superintendent at the time of the disaster, Denton’s then deputy, former Ch Insp Alan Foster, and the then South Yorkshire police force solicitor, Peter Metcalf, are charged with undertaking acts with intent to pervert the course of justice relating to Hillsborough.