Lineker quits his column at FA expose

Ian Burrell

Match Of The Day presenter Gary Lineker is to stop writing his column for a British Sunday newspaper in protest at its expose which led to the resignation of the English FA chairman.

Lineker (below), an ambassador for England's 2018 World Cup bid, accused the Mail on Sunday of "entrapment" and said it had made an error of judgement in publishing the story.

Lord Triesman resigned after it was revealed that he had alleged that the Spanish football authorities were "looking for help from the Russians to help bribe the referees in the World Cup".

However, Lineker claimed that the revelations, based on private conversations secretly recorded by Triesman's friend Melissa Jacobs, were "against the national interest".

The former England captain made an appeal for the press to desist from what he identified as a culture of seeking out negative stories.

"Maybe there will be a bit of a backlash from this. Maybe it's a time when people think, 'Is this right that private conversations can be turned into big stories?'" he said.

hnews@herald.ie