As Gary Lineker’s time as Match of the Day host draws to its close, the BBC mainstay shot Micah Richards down after Alan Shearer’s comment on his impending exit
Football icon Gary Lineker had some stern words for Micah Richards after being reminded his time on Match of the Day is almost up. The Leicester City legend will call time on his 26-year stay as MOTD host at the end of this season, with just one month to go before he presents the show for the last time.
Lineker, 64, announced in November 2024 that he’d be taking his leave from the BBC’s Premier League football highlights show this year.
He will continue with FA Cup coverage next season and then be part of the team for the 2026 World Cup next summer, but his time working on Premier League action is coming to an end. And while that reality may still be setting in for some fervent fans, it appears the man himself has long since made peace with the fact.
So too has Alan Shearer, it seems, after he made a joke on The Rest Is Football podcast concerning his colleague’s future. Talk turned to Leicester’s future after Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Liverpool confirmed their relegation, at which point Shearer said they “might see a happy Gaz on Match of the Day” before reminding listeners he won’t be on the flagship show next season.
Former Manchester City and Aston Villa defender Richards let out a sympathetic groan in response and asked: “Have you really gone there? That is cruel, you know that! Very, very cruel.”
At the same time, Lineker approved of Shearer’s light-hearted jibe as “a good point” before responding to Richards’ comment: “It’s not cruel at all. It’s a fact. I’m perfectly happy with it.”
The Foxes’ return to the Championship was confirmed after Trent Alexander-Arnold came off the bench to score the only goal at the King Power Stadium. Ruud van Nistelrooy‘s side join Southampton in dropping back down at the first time of asking, and Ipswich Town are on the brink of rounding out the relegated trio next weekend.
Lineker knows the feeling all too well after winning the Championship (then the Second Division) title with his hometown club after his first full senior campaign in 1980. He and Leicester were then relegated at the first attempt before helping fire them back to the top flight once more in 1983.
The former England international – who scored 48 goals in 80 outings for his country – has been the face of Match of the Day since 1999. He first stepped in to replace Des Lynam on Grandstand in 1997 before the BBC promoted him to head their football coverage two years later.
Lineker has since become synonymous with English football broadcasting in a second career spanning more than a quarter of a century. Yet he appears calm over his upcoming departure and is even “looking forward” to certain parts of television retirement.
“I’m very much looking forward to getting weekends off for the first time in my adult life,” he recently told FourFourTwo. “I’ll probably go to the odd game, likely in London because that’s where I live.
“Then I don’t know, I might go away for the weekend, how about that? I can catch the sun somewhere, or maybe visit the Cotswolds, Somerset or Cornwall. I’m a real foodie, I love cooking and eating at great restaurants – there are plenty of restaurants in this country that I want to go to.”
Judging from his joke, Shearer has also resolved the fact his long-time colleague will no longer be on BBC screens on most Saturday nights. But the topic may still be a sore spot for Richards after he felt compelled to rush to Lineker’s defence.
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