Gary Lineker to apologise to Frank Lampard following 'savage' joke during live Euro 2024 broadcast

Gary Lineker has said he will apologise after appearing to offend Frank Lampard with a balding joke during the BBC's coverage of Euro 2024 on Wednesday afternoon.

Lineker has gone viral on social media after an attempted piece of light-hearted banter struck the wrong note. During the BBC's coverage of Germany’s 2-0 win over Hungary the Match of the Day host broached the topic of the screen behind them which ensures punters in Berlin can't invade their broadcast.

He said: “The Brandenburg Gate there, we should take that screen down and see all the punters. But if they took the screen down they wouldn’t be able to watch the game."

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Lampard added: “They’d see my head! They wouldn’t turn up for that!” Lineker then joked: “No you’re right, nobody wants to see the back of your head these days! That’s for sure.”

Lampard laughed and replied 'absolutely not' as Lineker moved on with the discussion about Germany, oblivious to the reaction of his colleague, who looked far from happy. One fan wrote on X: "Lampard realising it was a balding joke has sent me."

Another added: "This is literally the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, actual tears in my eyes." Before a third said : “Absolutely savage. Poor Lampard.” Another joked: “Gary Lineker never got booked in his playing career but that defo deserved at least a yellow”.

However, addressing the joke on his The Rest Is Football podcast, which he does with Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, Lineker revealed he will apologise to the former Everton manager for the remark.

He said: “Obviously Frank’s slightly thinning, I’m slightly thinning, and I actually meant it about everyone. But when it came out, it came out a bit wrong. And you know Frank does that thing where he smiles, and then he suddenly doesn’t smile?

“Frank’s great fun, he won’t mind. I must admit, when I got back to the hotel I saw it on social media and thought, ‘Oh you f*****g idiot.’ I felt really bad, I’ll have to apologise. I will apologise because it wasn’t deliberate but I get how funny it was. Those things happen on live TV.”