Former Match of the Day host Gary Lineker has revealed how being asked to meet with Russian President Vladmir Putin in Russia saw him refuse to work with FIFA, he told his The Rest is Football podcast
Football icon and TV host Gary Lineker has revealed how FIFA put him in a “slightly uncomfortable position” after asking him to meet Russian President Vladmir Putin.
Speaking on his podcast, The Rest is Football, Lineker explained how the meeting was offered after taking part in the 2008 World Cup draw in 2017.
The draw was held in Moscow, Russia and Lineker reveals he thought “I don’t want to do that” when he was asked to meet Putin by FIFA officials. Instead he gave them the excuse that he has “got so much to do with the script”.
The former Match of the Day host went on to say that the moment made him decide to refuse to work with FIFA in the future as “it’s probably better to distance myself.”
Lineker told the podcast: “I made the decision quite a few years ago to not be associated with FIFA in any way, deliberately, because particularly with going into the fact that I’m in the media.
“And, sometimes, whether it was when I worked for the BBC or even now doing this show, I think it’s better if you’re not influenced from the inside. So I’ve kept my distance deliberately, I would say, probably since the turn of this decade. It was a deliberate ploy.
“Having done the World Cup draw for them in 2018, and I remember they wanted me to meet Vladimir Putin and I thought: ‘I don’t want to do that.’ And I just told them: ‘I’m sorry, I’ve got so much to do with the script. I’m trying to get it all ready.’
“And then I felt it was a slightly uncomfortable position. And I thought, going down the line, that it’s probably better to distance myself.”