Gary Lineker returns to BBC screens after gatecrashing interview
Gary Lineker returns to BBC screens after gatecrashing interview
Telegraph SportSun, July 12, 2026 at 4:47 AM UTC
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Gary Lineker gatecrashed a BBC chat with Micah Richards - BBC/X
Gary Lineker made an impromptu return to BBC screens when he gatecrashed a discussion on England’s win over Norway at the World Cup.
The former BBC presenter is in America as he fronts his The Rest is Football podcast on Netflix, but made a surprise appearance on the BBC when he featured as part of Micah Richards’ interview on England’s overturned penalty in the quarter-final victory on Saturday night.
Djed Spence was adjudged by the referee to have been fouled in extra time before the decision was overturned following a VAR review.
Richards, a pundit on The Rest is Football as well as the BBC, was asked about the decision to overturn the penalty by BBC presenter Jason Mohammad.
“He knows what he’s doing there,” Richards said in reference to Spence, before Lineker emerged and put his arm around him.
“Definitely a penalty,” Lineker said, which brought an awkward glance from Richards.
“Look who’s turned up,” said Mohammad.
“Come on England – nice to see you all there,” US-based Lineker said, after previously claiming the BBC studios were a “green box in Salford”. The BBC’s ‘work-from-home’ World Cup television presenters and pundits will not travel to the US until just before the semi-finals, where England will take on Argentina. France play Spain in the other semi-final.
Lineker was invited as a guest on ITV’s coverage of Germany vs Ivory Coast in the group stages in what was his first terrestrial appearance since his exit from the BBC 13 months ago.
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This World Cup was meant to be Lineker’s BBC swansong but his exit was hastened by the furore in May 2025 over an anti-Semitic rat emoji he reposted on Instagram. He later deleted it and apologised.
Lineker fronted six World Cups in all for the corporation – more than any other BBC broadcaster. But it was at the last Euros and his comment that England were “s---t” against Denmark which helped, in part, to expedite his departure from the broadcaster as it became one of the tournament’s biggest talking points.
“That was really good for our podcast and the amount of publicity,” he acknowledged to Telegraph Sport’s Sam Wallace in an interview this summer.
Lineker’s The Rest is Football podcast, produced by his company Goalhanger, was signed as a streaming show for the summer by Netflix.
England face a showdown against old rivals Argentina on Wednesday for a place in the World Cup final.
Speaking on his podcast, Lineker referenced the “Malvinas”, which Argentina calls the Falklands, where 649 of their military personnel died in 1982 after invading the sovereign British Overseas Territory.
Lineker said: “England could face Argentina in a semi-final, we’re getting ahead of ourselves a fraction, but so much history between our nations isn’t there? It’s not that long ago our two countries were at war, with the Falklands or Malvinas, even before that?”
Lineker made the comment as he interviewed a guest about historic animosities between Argentina and England.
The reference came after Argentina’s players were captured singing a chant in which they claim the Falkland Islands as their own in the aftermath of their controversial World Cup win over Egypt.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
