Kate Hoey was sacked as a result of her opposition to Labour's "fixation" with football, she claimed on Sunday.

The former sports minister said that she was dismissed because she wanted to focus on sports other than soccer.

"To this government, football is sport. You mustn't upset football," she told the Mail on Sunday.

Hoey believes her decision to oppose Wembley as a stadium solely for football sealed her fate.

She said that her demand that the stadium also be capable of hosting athletics championships had "offended football" - a bad move as a member of a goverernment which had "a fixation about football".

Hoey, who was sacked during a mobile telephone conversation with Tony Blair, also says she was put under pressure to speed-up work permit applications for foreign players seeking to enter the premiership.

She was also strongly critical of the government's relationship with the world cup's governing body, Fifa.

"There were times when you'd have thought the government was being run by Fifa. I was astonished. You couldn't criticise. Anyone who questioned the bid was unpatriotic," she said.

Chris Smith also comes in for harsh criticism, with Hoey saying that he lacked the required knowledge of sport. "Somebody once said that what Chris knew about sport could be written on the back of a ticket for the Royal Opera House. That was unkind, but it was right," she said.