Gary Linekar says thew BBC “moved the goalposts” with regards to freedom of speech and is enjoying “life without having to tread on eggshells”
Gary Lineker admits he doesn’t miss the BBC and is enjoying “life without having to tread on eggshells”.
After 26 years with the corporation the football pundit left the Beeb last year and has no regrets telling the Radio Times: “I think I’d had my time. It was like a wonderful marriage that kind of petered out a bit at the end.
“I love the BBC, I always will. I have a huge amount of respect for it. It turns out some incredible television and I think we did in sport. But I’m enjoying life without having to tread on eggshells and everything’s going really well. So no, I don’t miss it at all.”
Towards the end of Linekar’s tenure controversy never seemed far behind when he was involved in a few social media faux pas and was even suspended from Match of the Day for commenting on government policy in 2023.
The former England ace is glad to have a greater “freedom of speech” now outside of the Beeb’s confines adding: “It had become quite difficult. It was always fine for anyone outside of news and current affairs to have an opinion on other things in the world and then suddenly it wasn’t.
“They moved the goalposts, changed the guidelines and it became tricky because I’ve always cared about humanitarian issues, I don’t think they’re ever really political ones. Suddenly, they didn’t want you doing this or that, and [my departure] became inevitable because I have to live with myself.”
Despite no longer hosting BBC coverage, Linekar will still be at the World Cup this summer hosting his Rest Is Football podcast from New York, now on Netflix.
He said: “I’ve done World Cups, and we did a podcast every day for the Euros. This will just be a bit glossier, so I’ll manage.
“There will be lots of prep and long days, but they’re long days watching football so I’m not complaining.”
Linekar is enjoying life as co-founder and director of Goalhanger, the company behind a string of hit podcasts: The Rest Is… History, Politics and Entertainment. However, he refuses to take the plaudits: “It’s really my partners Tony Pastor and Jack Davenport who run the show.
“Just like my whole life, whether it be football or television, other people do all the hard work and then I get, well, the praise – and sometimes the blame. Tony and Jack are like Peter Beardsley and John Barnes. They create a lot of things for me and I go in and finish them off.” He beams at this extremely tidy football analogy.”
He’s promising to be a bit more honest about his footballing opinions these days too, but perhaps not quite as brutal as he was in in 2024, when he called an England performance at the Euros “s**t”.
He explained: “I didn’t do that deliberately. I hope I won’t have to swear, that it’ll all be very positive, because we really want England to do well and win it. But we can be a bit more honest.”
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