A year after his dramatic exit, Gary Lineker made a surprise return to the BBC shortly after England’s World Cup victory over Norway.
Gary Lineker attacks BBC Sport’s reaction to England’s win over Norway (Image: BBC Football/YouTube)
Gary Lineker crashed into the gates of BBC Sport’s coverage of England’s 2-1 win over Norway in an unpleasant cameo. The former Three Lions captain barged in and hijacked Micah Richards’ corner after Jude Bellingham’s game-winning brace.
BBC Sport has broadcast reactions to Thomas Tuchel’s side securing a place in the World Cup semi-finals after ITV retained the rights to the quarter-finals.
Wayne Rooney was accompanied by Ellen White, and Richards called from New York to provide analysis of the extra-time victory, but Lineker barged in midway through the show and disrupted the proceedings.
Pundits had been debating England’s penalty after it was ruled that Clement Turpin had initiated contact with Oscar Bobb before Jed Spence tumbled to the turf and it was rescinded.
Richards was sharing his thoughts on the French officials’ decision to overturn the original decision when Lineker, wearing an England shirt, suddenly jumped into frame.
“It’s definitely a penalty,” Lineker said, while a stunned Richards added: “Come on, England. Good to see you all.”
The 65-year-old then trudged away while Rooney jokingly bid him farewell: “Kit looks a bit cozy, Gaz.”
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Lineker seems much calmer about the World Cup result than he did in the aftermath of Argentina’s controversial 3-2 win over Egypt, appearing on The Rest Is Football earlier this week to slam potentially game-changing VAR decisions.
Egypt looked to have doubled their 1-0 lead early in the second half of their Round of 16 encounter, but Mostafa Ziko slotted home with ease after some great build-up play from Haisem Hassan and Mohamed Salah.
However, during play, VAR discovered what appeared to be a foul on Lisandro Martinez, resulting in the goal being overturned and the score remaining 1-0. The decision infuriated Lineker, who criticized VAR for chopping and changing its stance during the tournament, accusing it of interfering with the referee’s decisions.
“The problem is we’ll never get consistency from VAR because they change their tune. They weren’t very involved at the beginning of the tournament, then they wanted to be involved, now they’re more involved, now they’ll probably be less involved because there’s a bit of a stinker about this game,” he said.
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“The problem is not necessarily everyone running VAR, the problem is VAR itself.”
He added: “That’s the question with VAR: ‘Is that enough of a foul?'” Even if they just changed it and said it’s a foul or not, they’re still using this at this point – that must be enough of a turnover.
“So it’s always going to be a nightmare. The only way out of this, as I’ve said a million times, is the appeals system that will eventually be introduced, because we can’t keep going like this.”
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