LINEKER QUITS OVER TRIESMAN STING

Gary Lineker has quit his weekly column for the Mail on Sunday, saying the newspaper's publication of Lord Triesman's secretly recorded conversation has jeopardised England's chances of hosting the 2018 World Cup. Triesman resigned as chairman of the FA and of the 2018 bid team after he was quoted as saying rival bidders Spain and Russia intended to bribe referees. The controversy has thrown the English bid into chaos, and the country's odds of hosting the tournament have drifted to 13/8 having been odds-on. Lineker, a former England striker who played at two World Cups and is an ambassador for the 2018 bid, said the Mail on Sunday's story could have seriously damaged the effort to bring the tournament to England for the first time since 1966. "The story itself, the circumstances surrounding it and the actions of the Mail on Sunday in publishing it have undermined the bid to bring the World Cup to England in 2018," Lineker told The Guardian. "I wholeheartedly support the bid, because I believe that hosting the tournament would be brilliant for the country, and I am an official ambassador for it. I have therefore taken the view that I cannot continue as a columnist for the Mail on Sunday." The paper has been widely criticised for running the quotes, which were obtained by a former friend of Lord Triesman's who recorded their conversation without his knowledge. The story was sold by 37-year-old Melissa Jacobs for £75,000, using the publicist Max Clifford. Lineker's agent Jon Holmes launched a stinging attack on the newspaper and said the Match of the Day presenter had quickly decided to cut his ties with it. He said: "The story showed crass judgment. It had dubious journalistic merit, was clearly obtained by entrapment, and was timed to do the maximum damage to the World Cup bid, which Gary and all football fans in this country passionately support. "We wanted to make our position clear and to do all we can now to help persuade FIFA that England is the best country to host a great World Cup in 2018." A statement from the 2018 bid team said: "We would like to thank Gary for his support which is greatly appreciated. He has been a fantastic ambassador for the bid until now and will continue to be so until the end of the campaign. "We have had many messages of support over the last few difficult days and are grateful for all of them. It is clear that the public is totally behind both the bid and the England team going to South Africa this summer." Eurosport