Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand cleared on tickets tweets

Rio Ferdinand shows his disappointment after Manchester United squandered a two goal lead against Everton (Getty Images)

A watchdog has cleared a series of tweets by footballer Rio Ferdinand following a complaint that they misled his followers about a competition for game tickets.

The tweets, posted on January 25 and 26 from the England and Manchester United player's official Twitter account, included: "I'm giving 2 tickets away for our home match against Stoke (31st Jan KO 8pm)...I will tweet tomorrow morning with details of how to enter...," and "If you have downloaded the Rio Ferdinand App on iphone/ipad/Android or do so by Monday 5pm u may be randomly picked out to win the tickets! GO."

A later tweet explained: "We only see registrations. Will be random pick & a unique message sent to winning device explaining how to collect tickets - no big brother!"

One person complained the promotion was misleading because it did not make the terms and conditions clear and did not explain how the winner would be randomly selected.

New Era Global Sports Management, which represents Ferdinand, said the application download was free and Ferdinand did not receive any fees for his role in the giveaway.

New Era said the tweets clearly explained how to enter the competition and who would be included in the draw, adding that it had gone to "a great deal of effort" to ensure that it did not mislead in any way.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the tweets made it clear that Ferdinand was offering a prize draw, the prize on offer and when he would provide the information on how to enter, and later set out the conditions of entry, the deadline and that the winner would be randomly selected.

The ASA ruled: "We noted that the winner was randomly selected from the list of registered 'addresses' of those who had downloaded the app before the deadline and understood that those registered 'addresses' did not contain any identifying information or contact details.

"We were therefore satisfied that that selection process had been properly administered and that the winner had been randomly selected."

It added: "Because we considered that all the significant terms and conditions of the prize draw had been set out in Rio Ferdinand's tweets, and because we were satisfied that the prize draw had been properly administered, we concluded that the prize promotion was not misleading."

PA