From presenting in pants to political controversy: Gary Lineker’s Match of the Day career

The Leicester pants episode

No one gave Leicester City a hope of winning the 2015-16 Premier League: apparently not even Lineker, who began his playing career with the Foxes in 1978 and remains a loyal fan. In mid-December 2015, the BBC1 anchorman vowed to present an episode of Match of the Day wearing only his pants if Claudio Ranieri’s side ultimately managed to pull off one of the most surprising title wins in history. Five months after Lineker’s promise on Twitter (now X), Leicester’s glory arrived in May 2016. Lineker was as good as his word, beginning the next season’s opening highlights show in mid-August wearing a mercifully baggy white pair of Leicester City-branded boxer shorts as Alan Shearer and Ian Wright looked on from the pundits’ chairs. The former Tottenham and Barcelona forward remained in his pants for about 30 minutes of the broadcast, by which point no one could question his willingness to treat MotD viewers to a laugh at his own expense.

A rude interruption at Molineux

Presenting live TV can be a stressful business but Lineker proved his mettle in January 2023 when a prank caught out the BBC production team before an FA Cup tie. In the midst of the live broadcast for Wolves v Liverpool at Molineux, with Lineker about to link to a pre-match chat with the co-commentator Shearer, the presenter was rudely interrupted by the sound of loud and persistent moaning. “I don’t know who’s making that noise,” said a bemused Lineker, immediately seeing the funny side before pressing on with the third-round replay broadcast in unflappable style. “Somebody’s sending something on someone’s phone, I think,” Lineker said, perhaps as a member of the production team off-camera located the offending device that had been taped to the back of the set. “As sabotage goes it was quite amusing,” Lineker later posted on X, having safely negotiated a difficult moment that would doubtless have sent many other presenters into a spin.

Pundits strike amid political controversy

An enthusiastic and entertaining presence on Twitter/X, Lineker’s social media use has occasionally caused controversy, most notably in 2023 when he was taken off air for criticising Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government for their policy on asylum seekers. The former England forward, who proudly represented his country and scored 48 goals in 80 matches, compared the language used by Conservative ministers about asylum seekers with “that used by Germany in the 30s”. The furore subsequently whipped up by rightwing media was predictably hysterical and led the BBC to take Lineker off air while an agreement was reached on his future social media use. That decision led to Lineker’s studio colleagues, including Wright and Shearer, to down tools and refuse to appear on Match of the Day in solidarity. Pundits such as Micah Richards and Jermaine Jenas took the same line. The knock-on effect of the BBC asking Lineker to step back was Match of the Day airing without presenters or pundits. Some might say that was an improvement but we could not possibly comment.

Stepping up into the big chair (1999)

It would have been understandable to regard the task of trying to replace the great Des Lynam – a consistent model of composure and easy charm – as something of a poisoned chalice. But Lineker demonstrated his increasing confidence as a broadcaster when moving into the presenter’s chair in 1999. He took the task seriously, hiring a voice coach “to get some enthusiasm and light and shade into my voice”. While there remained plenty of room for Lineker’s style to develop, his basic willingness to employ humour and to attempt the unconventional for the audience’s enjoyment was clear from the beginning. “Gary was kind of shy in 1996,” Lynam told the Guardian in 2021. “Very reserved, and didn’t really have a lot to say. But now, he’s first class. Gary is a completely different character to me, but I think he’s terrific at what he does.” The trick to following Lynam, of course, was not to replace him but for Lineker to stamp his own mark on the role. With a polished 25 years of service behind him, no one can say he has not succeeded.