THE SPFL are unconcerned about sponsors Ladbrokes taking the mickey out of Celtic manager Ronny Deila and encouraging punters to bet on him being sacked.
Just 24 hours after the gut-wrenching Champions League exit in Malmo, Ladbrokes poked fun at the Celtic boss and offered odds on the Norwegian being replaced by John Collins, Paul Lambert or Alan Stubbs.
Using the chorus of the 1960s Tom Jones song “Delilah” they posed the question “Bye, bye, bye Deila?” and said the odds on the former Stromsgodset boss being dismissed had shortened to 3/1.
They made Collins 2/1 favourite to replace Deila and offered Lambert at 5/1 with Hibs boss Stubbs priced at 6/1.
David Macdonald of Ladbrokes said: “Plenty of fans are backing Celtic to say bye, bye, bye Deila before the end of the season following the result in Malmo.”
Last week Ladbrokes announced that Gary Locke’s “days are looking numbered” at Kilmarnock as they suspended betting on him being the first Premiership manager to be sacked.
SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster said there were no plans to speak to the betting company about their practices and insisted that their actions go with the territory. He said: “There were no discussions about their marketing plans when we signed the deal and we wouldn’t look to impose on the way they run their business. I wouldn’t have thought any league would.
“It’s a bookmaking organisation and they’ve got a job to do. Their job is to obviously run their business as best they can.”
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