I was sued by a Liverpool midfielder after his controversial transfer - all I did was call him naive

Gary Lineker, the host of Match of the Day, has opened up about the time he was sued by former Liverpool star Harry Kewell.

Kewell wasn't happy when Lineker wrote a newspaper column criticising his transfer from Leeds to Liverpool in 2003. The case ended up in London's High Court in 2005.

Kewell accused Lineker of a "hurtful and humiliating attack" over the transfer in an article titled "Kewell move made me feel ashamed of the game".

I accused my Liverpool team-mate of cheating then got drunk and carried out a pathetic act

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Kewell's transfer was dealt with by his personal manager Bernie Mandic, who started talks with Liverpool himself. Mandic's company Max Sport reportedly received a cut of the £5m fee Liverpool paid.

Lineker was worried about Mandic's involvement and, in his column, suggested that agents should be banned from working for both the player and the selling club. Lineker denied libel and claimed it was fair comment. He now calls the incident "ludicrous".

"Do you know Harry Kewell sued me? It's quite a while ago, I used to have a column and it was around transfers," Lineker said on The Rest Is Football podcast as he, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards discussed the best Australian players in the Premier League.

"I was talking about how agents shouldn't be allowed to represent both parties in terms of the football club on both sides and the player himself because of conflict of interest. He sued me over this because I called him naive for that. It was obvious that his agent took the hump.

"I was in court for four or five days giving evidence, it was ludicrous and obviously it didn't transpire that he won the case.

"But I was