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Gary Lineker has appeared to express a willingness to stay on as Match of the Day host, after his widely tipped replacement Jermaine Jenas was fired from the BBC over allegations of inappropriate workplace behaviour.
The 63-year-old former England footballer has presented the BBC’s flagship sports show for a quarter of a century but his £1.3million-a-year contract is due to expire at the end of the current season and it is unclear whether he will seek to renew it.
While Lineker has previously described 41-year-old Jenas as “my natural successor”, the One Show presenter and football pundit was sacked by the BBC last week after a female colleague raised concerns about unsolicited messages.
In an interview with The Independent, Lineker sounded keen to extend his tenure at the helm of the programme, saying: “Match Of The Day is such an iconic show, 60 years is such a long time and I have presented it for 25 of those years.
“Podcast-wise, things have really exceeded our expectations but, at the same time, I love being part of Match Of The Day. I love working for the BBC. I know it has its issues and it has its troubles but I think it’s brilliant.
“I think sometimes we don’t shout about how good we are at the BBC and what we offer.”
Lineker spoke of his surprise at the runaway success of his Goalhanger podcast empire, which began with The Rest Is History to now become “the monster it is” – including “huge hit” The Rest Is Politics and The Rest Is Football, which Lineker hosts alongside his TV colleagues Alan Shearer and Micah Richards.
“If I get called a podcast mogul, I take that as a compliment,” he said. “Did I ever envisage our company becoming as successful as it is? Of course not.”
Alongside his podcast successes, Lineker has had multiple brushes with BBC bosses in recent months over expressing his personal views on issues such as the war in Gaza and Tory policy on asylum seekers – which in March 2023 saw his colleagues boycott Match of the Day in solidarity after he was briefly suspended.
Asked earlier this week about how long he expects to continue at the programme’s helm, Lineker told BBC Breakfast: “I don’t know. Depends how long they want me, I suppose. I love doing it at the moment – I’ve still got another year left, at least.”
While Jenas – who has worked as a pundit for Match of the Day and worked on coverage of the FA Cup and World Cup – had previously said he would jump at the chance to one day replace Lineker, he was dropped by the BBC week last week following an investigation.
The father-of-four apologised on Friday as he admitted to sending unsolicited messages, including “frantically” sexting a woman over 24 hours after getting her phone number at a work event. He strongly denied any criminality or sending sexual pictures or videos.
Jenas said his wife of 13 years, model Ellie Penfold, was “raging” after he told her he had been dismissed by the BBC over the messages to two female colleagues, describing himself as “ashamed” and “deeply sorry” in an interview with The Sun newspaper.
You can read The Independent’s full interview with Gary Lineker here
