Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers says gambling is a personal responsibility and defends sponsorship deals

All three major tournaments in Scotland have bookmakers as main sponsors, as does the main stand at the national stadium.

In his response to his ban, Barton himself attacked what he felt was the hypocrisy of football in hammering players for betting while being happy to pocket lucrative sponsorship money from gambling firms and allowing their names to become omnipresent in the sport.

Rodgers, whose own club’s main sponsor is a betting firm, doesn’t think banning betting companies from promoting themselves through football is the answer to curbing the prevalence of players’ gambling problems.

Instead, he feels there is a personal responsibility on players to avoid such temptations, but if they are unable to do so he believes they should talk to someone about their problem.

“There’s talk now about whether the betting companies should be involved in football but I don’t think that’s necessarily right,” Rodgers said.

“These companies will put money into football, they’ll give to the game – and football will take from it.

“Gambling is a responsibility. It’s your own responsibility. I feel you have a choice. You only do it if it’s there. Not just in football but in your social life. You don’t need to do it, so it’s your responsibility and your choice if you do or not.

“Over my career I’ve spoken with players and people who’ve had those issues. The only thing I’ve always said to players is that you need to speak about it – and I’ve spoken to a number of players in my coaching and managing career – because it’s a hell of a burden to carry.

“You’re losing money, and if you’re losing big money, you’re putting your family at risk, you’re putting your

career at risk. I’ve seen first-hand the turmoil it brings players. It does affect them because if you’re gambling and losing, you start chasing it, and it affects your behaviour, it affects your daily life, affects your family life. And all I ever say to them is, ‘Listen, don’t carry the burden – speak about it’.

“The problem for men, and we’re all the same, is that sometimes speaking is seen as a weakness, especially for a young player.

“But it’s not. Lift that burden because the biggest win you will get in all of this is when you pick up the phone and admit it. Whether it’s to me or anyone else. Because what that does is, the minute they can talk about it, they can sleep at night.”

Rodgers is a hands-on manager, but concedes there are aspects of his players’ lives he cannot control. With issues such as gambling, he relies upon his dressing-room lieutenant and club captain Scott Brown to make sure his code of conduct is adhered to, and that none of his younger players, in particular, step out of line.

“There’s an awareness of it here from the club, there’s a message that’s pretty clear,” he said. “All the players are fully aware of it. Scott Brown is brilliant in terms of reiterating all that sort of stuff as well. He’s an incredible leader in relation to what we want in place in-house. He guides it. So, all the players know what those are. But it’s a tough thing, the gambling.”

Rodgers has, meanwhile, confirmed Celtic’s pre-season training schedule ahead of their attempt to qualify for the Champions League group stage for the second year in succession.

Having visited Slovenia last year, the Premiership champions will head to continental Europe again once they return from their summer break with an early start to get fully prepared for the second round of qualifying ties in July. However, the exact venue for their training base is yet to be confirmed.

Rodgers has sent a representative to scout locations in Obertraun in Austria, where he once took his Swansea City side, and a more accessible base in the same country in Linz.

“We more than likely will be going to Austria,” Rodgers said. “The players will be back, a lot of them, on June 19. The internationals [will come back] on June 22, and we’ll be over there from June 26 until July 4.”