LONDON (Reuters) – The blushes of Chelsea’s misfiring striker Fernando Torres have been spared after a local council ordered the removal of an advertising hoarding that mocked his performances for the European champions.

The advert for bookmakers Paddy Power was erected on a building next to Stamford Bridge but Spanish international Torres, signed from Liverpool for a 50 million pounds ($75.58 million) fee in January 2011, has had the last laugh.

Chelsea' s soccer player Fernando Torres attends a news conference at Monaco's Grimaldi Forum in Monte-Carlo August 30, 2012. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

The sign’s slogan ‘Fernando – we’ve got an onion bag you can actually find. It’s in the burger van mate. Get your hair net on’ was emblazoned next to a picture of a burger being flipped.

Hammersmith and Fulham Council were made aware of the illegal hoarding and ordered its removal.

"Poking fun at beleaguered Premier League footballers is not necessarily a problem as long as the advertising hoardings are legal," the council’s deputy leader Greg Smith said in a news release.

"Residents don’t expect hoardings to pop up everywhere willy-nilly."

Torres has been unable to recapture the scintillating form he showed at Liverpool during his time with Chelsea and has been left out of Spain’s squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Finland on Friday and France four days later.

($1 = 0.6615 British pounds)

(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Tony Jimenez)

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