Gary Lineker: I feel liberated. The BBC moved the goalposts, not me
Had it not been for an Instagram post sent in haste and viewed by millions, Gary Lineker‘s plans for the World Cup would be very different.
Cast your mind back a year ago and the plan was for this summer’s tournament in the US, Mexico and Canada to be Lineker’s BBC “victory lap”, the final in New Jersey next month bringing the curtain down on a stellar but sometimes controversial career with the corporation. It was the perfect script for their star presenter.
But an ill-fated pro-Palestine post – which featured a rat emoji widely understood to be an anti-Semitic trope that Lineker hadn’t noticed – put an end to that and perhaps prevented further fireworks down the line.
Released from “walking on eggshells” at the BBC after the furore last year, Lineker will be fronting a daily Netflix version of his The Rest Is Football podcast in Manhattan’s Times Square, immersing himself in the World Cup atmosphere and delivering some straight-talking analysis. Meanwhile his former colleagues will be back home in Salford, passports in the top drawer while they describe events an ocean away.
“I’m surprised the BBC is not going,” he tells The i Paper. “I don’t know whether it’s costs or pressure because they’re always fighting against that but I know if I was presenting I would have been arguing the case to go.
“I’m in the camp that they should be there because it’s the biggest televisual event we get every four years. The top six, eight, 10 shows this year will all be from the World Cup and half of those will be on the BBC. They will probably go out if England are still in it towards the end but I am surprised they’ve made that decision.”
‘I feel liberated after leaving the BBC’
Lineker will front his podcast alongside old BBC colleagues Micah Richards and Alan Shearer (Photo: The Rest Is Football)
Lineker is baffled but not belligerent. His acrimonious exit in 2025 meant he was free to do the Netflix deal and “be there, in New York, rather than sitting in a green box”.
And he does seem happy and relaxed, full of anecdotes and excitement about the World Cup and a Netflix tie-in that will see his podcast broadcast 40 shows in 40 days.
“Something different” is how Lineker describes it and he clearly loves being able to spend most of his professional career now in what he calls “podcast mode”.
Reading between the lines, that means the freedom to say what he wants, throw in the occasional swearword and operate social media without worrying he’s going to start a media firestorm because of it.
“I feel liberated,” he says of life post-BBC. “I don’t have to tread on eggshells anymore because I’m not part of that thing.”
‘I might be stupid but I’m not that stupid’
Lineker feels he was hounded out of the BBC (Photo: Getty)
Always unapologetic about standing up for what he says are “humanitarian causes”, Lineker likens his relationship with the corporation to a “long marriage that just petered out” and the tension had clearly been there long before the final, explosive act in 2025.
He accuses management of “moving the goalposts” in the latter stages of his presenting career by introducing a stricter code of conduct around social media. “I wasn’t prepared to go with them and I had the benefit of being pretty secure so it was better I left in the end,” he says.
“It wasn’t how I wanted it to end, of course. I missed an emoji, I didn’t see it, I don’t think anybody thinks for a second it was deliberate. I might be stupid but I’m not that stupid so it was a shame.
“I thought an apology should have sufficed but I think at that point there was a lot of weight, a lot of pressure, lobby pressure, from various people.
“But to be honest now I’m kind of glad because I wasn’t doing Match of the Day this season anyway, I was only going to do the FA Cup and the World Cup and actually it would have meant I couldn’t do this and this is something different and fun.
“It means I can be there, in New York, rather than a green box [in Salford, where the BBC will present it].
“I’m pretty happy – not with the way it happened, because it was unfortunate – but I’m happy with the outcome.”
‘Trump is so unpredictable’
Trump is expected to take centre stage in a World Cup like no other (Photo: Getty)
Lineker flies out next week into a tournament that he is worried about. We spoke four years ago about feeling “queasy” with Qatar hosting the World Cup but it is the Trump factor that most scares him this time.
“This one is unique because I can’t remember the host country being at war with one of the competing nations. So that’s something that worrying and Trump is so unpredictable,” Lineker says.
“The ticket pricing as well – are they going to price people out? What’s one of the great joys of the World Cup? Thousands of Argentinians, thousands of Brazilians, the Dutch all wearing orange. Are we going to get that? That worries me a bit.
“But I’ve also learned over the years in my experience of this – including in Russia, including in Qatar – once it starts everyone focuses on the football.”
When that begins there will be relief but taut nerves, too, particularly around England.
‘England have got a chance’
Tuchel leads training at England’s pre-World Cup camp in Florida this week (Photo: PA)
The appointment of Thomas Tuchel was done to bridge the gap between nearly men and winners but Lineker is realistic.
“I think it’s going to be really difficult but I think we’ve got a chance,” he says.
“We looked really tired two years ago and I don’t think Harry Kane was fit, which made a really big difference. But there’s bigger squads this time and a lot of our players have been out injured this season, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. They’ll be going in much fresher.
“We’ve got the quality but it’s just the question of getting a bit of luck, no injuries and then it’ll be about good management because this tournament – more than anything – you will need to change things from time to time because there’s an extra round of matches.”
‘I thought I was going to die in Mexico’
Lineker is England’s record goalscorer in World Cups (Photo: Getty)
He doesn’t necessarily think heat will be a factor but recalls feeling as if he was “going to die” when he played in Mexico in 1986.
“It was murder, absolute murder,” he recalls. “We played three times in Monterrey, one at 12pm, the other two at 4pm, and it got to 42 degrees. When I played and scored the hat-trick [against Poland], in the second half of that game I really did think I was going to keel over and I might be a goner.
“My legs had gone and I started to feel dizzy from the heat and exhaustion but you get on with it and it will have changed a bit now.
“We didn’t have a drinks break, for a start…”
For all of the baggage, Lineker still seems genuinely enchanted by the magic of the World Cup. This will be the 11th tournament in succession he has either played in or worked at. “It’s just wonderful isn’t it. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” he says. Which is just as well.
What he said… Lineker’s views
Lineker feels more at ease with expressing his opinions when in ‘podcast mode’ (Photo: The Rest Is Football)
On the BBC’s decision not to go to the US, Canada and Mexico for the World Cup
“I’m surprised. I’m in the camp that they should be there because it’s the biggest televisual event we get every four years. The top six, eight, ten shows this year will all be from the World Cup and half of those will be on the BBC.
“I know if I was presenting I would have been arguing the case to go but I get it, it’s not easy.
Calling England ‘shit’ at the last Euros
“I couldn’t believe it was such a big story! Of course not.
“If I’d have said ‘very, very, very poor’ no-one would have said anything but I was just in podcast mode, I never thought anything of it. And I think everyone agreed.
“But it was put to Gareth Southgate as ‘Gary Lineker says you’re shit’ without any of the context around it. I understand why. While I could have done without that nonsense it was actually very good for the podcast, we got a lot of listeners.
“The ‘papers were after me at that point anyway – well the right wing press were – but it actually really helped in terms of growing our podcast and I was grateful for that.”
On Trump and the World Cup
“Trump is always a factor. We’ll have to wait and see what happens because he changes his tune quite regularly.
“I genuinely don’t know what to expect. I don’t think any of us know.
“The head of Fifa has given him a peace prize and all these strangely baffling things. I’ll be relieved when it gets underway but it’s so big – the biggest sporting event in the world – that it generally takes on a momentum of its own.”
The Rest is Football begins on Netflix on 10 June
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