England football great Gary Lineker has backtracked after taking a swipe at the haka and deleted the offending tweet.
When retweeting New Zealand’s pre-match against Canada, Lineker said “Must be hard not to just laugh at this if you’re the opposition.”
He has since deleted the Tweet in the wake of backlash.
“I’ve deleted the tweet as it wasn’t intended that way in the slightest. I was just wondering why as an opposing sportsmen it would be in anyway intimidating after seeing it for so many years. I should probably have phrased it that way,” he wrote in a reply.
Harder not to laugh at Spurs, on balance. The Haka is one of the greatest spectacles in sport, and of huge cultural importance in New Zealand. Weird that you would mock it. https://t.co/GLg6tGATBt
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) October 2, 2019
English broadcaster Piers Morgan said Lineker’s comments were uncalled for.
“The Haka is one of the greatest spectacles in sport, and of huge cultural importance in New Zealand. Weird that you would mock it,” he tweeted.