Gary Lineker is leaving Match of the Day after 25 years at the helm of the flagship English Football show. A departure which signals the end of an era for football fans across the Channel. The details of this shattering announcement and what it means for the future of…
The world of British football is in turmoil. Gary Lineker, iconic presenter of the Match of the Day show since 1999, will leave his post at the end of the current season. This announcement, revealed by the Sun and confirmed by the BBC on Monday evening, sounds like a bolt from the blue for football fans across the Channel.
25 years of passion and loyal service
With this departure, a real page is being turned. The former England international, who played for Leicester, Everton, FC Barcelona and Tottenham, took the reins of this essential weekly event in 1999, just five years after hanging up his boots. Since then, he has faithfully accompanied millions of viewers on Saturday evenings, deciphering Premier League matches with expertise and passion.
There comes a time when you have to know how to slow down. I plan to focus full-time on my successful podcast, The Rest Is Football.
Gary Lineker, in an interview with Esquire magazine last week
If the main person concerned evokes weariness and the desire to devote himself to other projects, it is difficult not to make the link with the controversy which shook the BBC last March. As a reminder, Gary Lineker had been temporarily suspended after criticizing on Twitter a Conservative government bill aimed at preventing illegally arriving migrants from seeking asylum in the UK.
A divisive position
Gary Lineker, who himself welcomed refugees, then sharply denounced “a cruel policy aimed at the most vulnerable, in a language reminiscent of Germany in the 1930s”. Comments which sparked heated controversy, with several consultants such as Ian Wright and Alan Shearer withdrawing from the airwaves in solidarity with their colleague.
Faced with the outcry, the former striker was finally reinstated a week later, not without reviving the debate on political impartiality in force at the BBC. It now remains to be seen who will succeed this tutelary figure of the British sporting PAF. The names of former players turned consultants like Alan Shearer or Ian Wright are already circulating insistently.
The future of Match of the Day in question
Beyond the person of Gary Lineker, it is the very future of Match of the Day that questions us. Launched in 1964, the show has spanned the ages, establishing itself as a true institution for football fans. With an audience oscillating between 2 and 3 million viewers every Saturday evening, it remains one of the locomotives of the BBC.
But at a time when TV rights are soaring and competition from broadcasters is becoming increasingly fierce, nothing says that Match of the Day will forever retain its status as an unmissable event. The departure of its emblematic presenter could in any case mark the beginning of a new era, between traditions and necessary developments.
One thing is certain: for many football fans, Saturday evenings will no longer be quite the same without the voice and analysis of Gary Lineker. After 25 years of good and loyal service, the one who embodies football on TV like no other will undeniably leave a big void. But as they say across the Channel: “The show must go on”. Verdict from next season.
