Gary Lineker takes cheeky dig at ITV as BBC presenter discusses broadcast rivalry at Euro 2024
GARY LINEKER took a cheeky dig at ITV as he opened up on the rivalry with the BBC.
Match of the Day host Lineker is in Germany presenting the Beeb’s coverage of Euro 2024.
That included England’s opening game on Sunday night as Jude Bellingham grabbed the winner against Serbia.
And after the game, he sat down with BBC pundit Micah Richards for the latest episode of their Rest Is Football podcast.
Lineker mentioned the fact that England’s next Group C match, against Denmark, is also on the BBC before ITV show the Slovenia match on June 25.
That prompted a discussion about the so-called rivalry between the two national broadcasters who are sharing the coverage for the major tournament once again.
The BBC have Lineker as their main presenter with Alex Scott also hosting – with pundits including Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Cesc Fabregas, Frank Lampard and Richards.
ITV, meanwhile, have Roy Keane, Ian Wright, Gary Neville and Ange Postecoglu with Mark Pougatch and Laura Woods anchoring.
Richards said: “How many watch on the BBC do you know? Have you got the figures?
“What is this rivalry between ITV and BBC when they post the figures and that kind of thing?”
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Lineker replied: “There is no rivalry. For me, I got over that a long time ago.
“I don’t really care because ultimately we alternate games between us.
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“Obviously there’s a bit of rivalry because we’re competitive people.
“But how do you judge that? Do you judge it by the amount of people who watch a game because we know when England are playing you get more viewers?
“It’s only on one channel and everyone will watch it regardless of whether it’s on ITV or the BBC. I got over that a long time ago.
“But there is one thing… BBC and ITV both show the finals.
“Naturally we are sporting people, we are competitive, so that is a little competition. It’s not important to anyone else but it is to us.”
Richards replied: “We do like ITV, though, don’t we? Keano and Wrighty, we don’t need to have that rivalry.”
But then Lineker could not resist one quip at ITV’s expense.
He added: “They’re really good. English television does football really well.
“ITV do it brilliantly… we do it slightly better!”
BBC and ITV's Euro 2024 line up in full
Here's how each channel will line-up:
BBC presenters:
Gary Lineker, Alex Scott, Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman
ITV presenters:
Mark Pougatch and Laura Woods
BBC pundits:
Alan Shearer, Micah Richards, Rio Ferdinand, Ellen White, Frank Lampard, Ashley Williams, Wayne Rooney, Joe Hart, Cesc Fabregas, Thomas Frank, David Moyes, Rachel Corsie and James McFadden
ITV pundits:
Ian Wright, Roy Keane, Gary Neville, Karen Carney, Graeme Souness, Eni Aluko, Ange Postecoglou, Danny Rohl and Christina Unkel
BBC commentators:
Guy Mowbray, Robyn Cowen, Vicki Sparks, Steve Wilson, Steve Bower and Jonathan Pearce
ITV commentators:
Sam Matterface, Clive Tyldesley, Seb Hutchinson, Pien Meulensteen and Joe Speight
BBC co-commentators:
Danny Murphy, Martin Keown, Jermaine Jenas and James McFadden
ITV co-commentators:
Lee Dixon, Ally McCoist and Andros Townsend
And the pair could not resist breaking into hilarious laughter at Lineker’s witty comment.
Lineker had to give Richards a ticking off during the live BBC coverage of England’s win over Serbia because the ex-Manchester City right-back threatened to use a banned phrase.
Richards almost referenced “football coming home” – but Lineker had to step in and tell him to stop.
Elsewhere, fans bemoaned the filthy windows in their live studio as well as Joe Hart’s “zebra crossing” tattoos.
And there was chaos in the studio at half-time when the panel were attacked by hornets in bizarre scenes.
However, Lineker also showed his serious side on Saturday night when he delivered a touching message to former MOTD colleague Alan Hansen, who is seriously ill.