Crisp Salesman Gets Above Himself…

Gary Lineker in tantrum over journalists doing their job:

My weekly column will no longer be appearing in the Mail on Sunday. Not after last weekend's story in the same newspaper, which led to the resignation of Lord Triesman, the chairman of the Football Association and England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

It’s Gary’s ball and he’s taking it home with him, so there!

It was clearly a case of entrapment.

Oh, good lord…

Whatever you think about Lord Triesman and whatever you feel about what he said, his comments were obviously meant for one person's ears and one person's ears only.

Well, yes. So were Nixon’s. So what..?

And however ridiculous these comments might appear, they are very damaging. I think it's a real shame the newspaper made the judgement that they did for short-term gain in sales of newspapers because it's hard to see that there was any other positive from it.

There doesn’t need to be any other positive from it. That’s what newspapers do, Gary. It’s their job, like yours is football commentating flogging Walkers crisps.

As an ambassador of the 2018 bid I would desperately love the World Cup to come to this country, but this story has damaged our chances and I'd be hypocritical to continue to earn money from writing a column in that paper.

Well, don’t let the door hit you on the bum as you leave, then…

I think this story goes against the national interest because the country is behind the 2018 bid, in which a lot of people invested a hell of a lot of time. The bid is particularly strong and has just been handed in last week.

Translation: ‘As a football commentator, I’m keen to have more job opportunities and it’s unfair that the rock has been lifted up to show the things crawling around underneath, so I’m going to whine about the person who lifted that rock…’

There seems to be some sort of thirst in the press for negative stories about our squad and our management going into a major competition.

There’s a thist in the press for negative stories, full stop. They don’t have any particular downer on footballers, they’ll happily run stories about idiot actors, drunken rugby players, tarty popsingers…

I don’t suppose it ever occurred to you that the squad and management could avoid most of these stories by, oooh, say, not acting like barely human morons with the morals of alley cats?

Thought not…

I think it might be a time that we can perhaps reflect on this as a nation and perhaps think of the responsibility our newspapers have. They all seem to champion the national side and show patriotism but when push comes to shove and they have the opportunity of selling an extra few newspapers, at times I think they will make errors of judgement in stories that are basically just private issues.

The only responsibility that newspapers have is to report the news, for crying out loud!

They have no, repeat, no responsibility to shut up to spare the blushes of some idiot who couldn’t keep it in his pants, some dumb tart who couldn’t keep her legs together, or some idiotic old duffer who couldn’t keep his mouth shut…

Maybe it's a time when people think 'is this right that private conversations can be turned into big stories?'

And maybe not…

Perhaps people will now think a little bit deeper about the ramifications of stories that can come from newspapers. I think it frustrates the people of this country that some of these stories can come out at a time of national importance, which is especially the case with the 2018 bid for economic reasons.

I don’t think ‘me and all my footie and media mates and luvvie chums’ = ‘the people of this country’, Gary…

It's a difficult time for the country and I think it would be a huge boost to host the World Cup. I think we would do a brilliant job and it would have a massive impact.

I think it’d be another pile of money down the drain, on top of the money we are already shelling out for the Stratford Shindig. And don't get me started on the abomination that is the mascots for that shindig...

There's a wide sense of outrage over this story…

Really..?

I took a straw poll in the office. No-one cared, several hadn’t even heard of it.

…that's a general feeling among the British public.

It appears it isn’t. Sorry, Gary!