Gary Neville says he is feeling the nerves and expects questions about his decision to work at this year's controversial world cup ahead of his appearance on the iconic BBC show. Neville will be on the hot seat for the popular show at 9pm on BBC One tonight (November 9).
And ahead of his first appearance, Neville - who has become an outspoken political voice of late - said he is "sweating" about the episode after being tasked with the role of question master.
The 47-year-old, who made an appearance at the Labour Party Conference at the end of September, wrote on Twitter alongside two laughing emojis: "Must watch if you want to watch someone well out of their comfort zone, sweating, dry mouth and getting caught with a few punches on the face on Qatar off Ian Hislop."
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The Mirror reports that his tweet came after he posted a video on Instagram sharing his thoughts on the episode and admitting to it being one of the most nerve-wracking moments of his life, despite playing in huge finals for Man Utd and major tournaments for England.
"For the first time, probably, I’d say in maybe 10 years since I did my first Monday Night Football I actually feel quite nervous and a little bit… I used the word stretch, not stressed, a little bit stretched and I’m just videoing this in an uncomfortable moment because we sometimes put ourselves in these moments in life, we’ve never done it before.
"I always used to say it was like diving in the deep end as a kid when you haven’t got your arm bands on for the first time. You don’t know what’s going to happen, that little bit of trepidation."
He then continued: "This is my thought of the week: you have to put yourselves in life in those moments of stress where you’re presenting, you’re on autocue, I’ve got what I feel are intelligent, clever, experienced, broadcaster types around me and I am not a presenter so here goes!
"You’ll be able to watch the show tonight but I’m just letting you know there are moments of vulnerability even though sometimes you look confident."
It will be particularly interesting to see what remarks are made about his decision to team up with beIN Sports in Qatar, after he came under plenty of scrutiny.
The channel is owned by the Qatar state, and the Middle East country is under the spotlight due to its human rights record. Despite the numerous concerns about the country hosting the World Cup, Neville revealed he would join the broadcaster as a pundit but quickly came under-fire.
But Neville hit back at the criticism, stating: "Qatar have had Amnesty International and the International Labour Organisation all over them for the last 10 years because of the World Cup. Saudi Arabia have come into our country to own Newcastle and they've got terrible human rights issues over there and people work for them in this country," he told the Daily Mail.
"We either decide that we collaborate with these countries, and try and impact change through football - which is what I think we should always do - or we say we're never going to let them play sport, we're never going to have a World Cup there, we're never going to allow them to compete against us because they don't have what would be as progressive rights as they should have.
"That is the reality of where I'm at with it. There's no-one that I think wants workers' rights to be better than me, there's no-one who wants women's rights, equality or diversity more than me, I absolutely believe in it.
"When I highlight these issues, I can do so from a position whereby if I am covering eight games on beIN in a World Cup, and those issues come up or there's an incident outside the stadium, I will highlight them. I will never shy away from it."
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