Gambling advert featuring Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers BANNED

A GAMBLING ad that showed a pic of Brendan Rodgers before his return as Celtic boss has been banned because it would appeal to under-18s.

Ladbrokes posted a promotional tweet earlier this year about odds on managers losing their jobs in the English Premier League.

It included photos of Celtic boss Rodgers, who was then in charge at Leicester City, and West Ham manager David Moyes.

The post featured a headline which stated “Ladbrokes NEXT MANAGER TO LEAVE ODDS," and also featured Frank Lampard and former Bournemouth boss Gary O'Neil.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) launched an investigation and has now banned the advert after ruling it was "irresponsible" because of the popularity of the managers with young people.

A separate ad featuring Newcastle United boss Eddie Howie was also banned.

In a written ruling, the ASA said: "We noted that managers of Premier League football teams were considered high risk in terms of how likely they were to be of strong appeal to under-18s.

"Managers of top clubs were likely to appeal strongly to children.

"We noted the ads included Eddie Howe, David Moyes, Frank Lampard, Brendan Rodgers and Gary O’Neil, who at the time of publication, were all current Premier League managers and would be well known to those who followed football, and in particular fans of the clubs they managed, including children.

"We considered based on those factors, that all five managers were likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s.

"We acknowledged that the ads were targeted at over-25s, but because was a media environment where users self-verified on customer sign-up, we considered that Ladbrokes had not excluded under-18s from the audience with the highest level of accuracy required for ads the content of which was likely to appeal strongly to under-18s."

Ladbrokes acknowledged that the tweet featuring Rodgers and Moyes was commercial in nature as it contained market prices for the next Premier League manager to lose his job.

They said it inadvertently included imagery of the managers, which was contrary to their guidance and standard procedure for commercially oriented content.

The company said they had taken steps to ensure that content of that nature would be reviewed more thoroughly to ensure future

Rodgers left Leicester City in April and was appointed Celtic manager for the second time last month.