Gary Lineker has quit his column for The Mail On Sunday in protest over their 'expose' of Lord Triesman.
The paper reportedly paid £75,000 to Melissa Jacobs for a recording of Triesman, in which he speculated that the Russian and Spanish bid teams for the 2018 World Cup may collude to bribe referees in South Africa this summer.
Triesman was forced to resign from as chairman of both the FA and the England 2018 bid team, and Match Of The Day presenter Lineker is not impressed with his other (now former) employers.
In announcing his decision to quit, Lineker, who has written for the paper for six months, said: "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.
"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."
Lineker's agent Jon Holmes had further criticism for the paper, believing it to be a honey-trap with little or no public interest.
"The story showed crass judgment," Holmes said.
"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."
The Guardian reports that The Mail has further comments recorded by Jacobs, but is yet to decide whether to run them this weekend.
