WATCH: 'Financial incentives!' Tom Harwood details Gary Lineker move that ‘suits all parties’

GB News

GB News commentator Tom Harwood has claimed that Gary Lineker had "financial incentives" to leave the BBC, following the presenter's admission that the corporation wanted him to step down from presenting Match of the Day.Lineker revealed in a BBC interview with Amol Rajan that he felt the broadcaster preferred him to leave the flagship football programme after 25 years.READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Transcript

00:00As he was negotiating a new contract, so he sensed the mood had changed with regards to him.

00:06Yes, dear old Gary has been criticised by a number of people in the past for expressing political views online,

00:15with Lineker describing the impartiality row with the BBC as a lover's tip. Let's have a listen.

00:21Perhaps they want me to leave. Is that a sense you've got?

00:27There was a sense of that, yeah.

00:30But would you have stayed if you could have stayed? Would you have liked to have stayed?

00:33No, I always wanted one more contract. I think it was their preference that I didn't do much of the day for one more year.

00:42So did the BBC attempt to push Gary Lineker out? I think probably, yes.

00:46I think Gary's probably right with his assessment there that the BBC probably wanted to get rid of him.

00:51He cost a huge amount of money and he was causing a lot of headaches.

00:54I mean, remember he called the government's asylum, well, he likened the government's asylum policy to 1930s Germany.

01:00Didn't he? He had a lot to say about Suella Braverman as well as Home Secretary.

01:06Yeah, and it's not about holding sort of personal political views.

01:10And it's not about, I mean, I'm sure there are lots of people who've taken in a refugee,

01:14as Gary Lineker did for a few weeks.

01:16But I think the bigger thing is the way in which Lineker wanted to be a political figure online.

01:25Getting into arguments and debates so openly, but also being so high profile as the face of the BBC.

01:34Yeah, he was...

01:35I mean, it just does not match.

01:37Absolutely.

01:38And I mean, he's a member of the sort of left-wing commentary act, definitely.

01:42Some might say even far left.

01:43But he did address the comparison he made between the government's asylum policy in 1930s Germany.

01:50He said,

01:50So he doesn't regret the comments because he believes them to be true.

02:09But he regrets sort of what happened afterwards.

02:12And he says,

02:12I love the BBC and I didn't like the damage that it did to the BBC.

02:15But do I regret it?

02:16And do I think it was the wrong thing to do?

02:18No.

02:18It's a little bit confused there.

02:20Not sure what he regrets and what he doesn't.

02:21But here's the thing.

02:23If you are such a high profile presenter on a publicly funded broadcasting organisation,

02:30of course the organisation is going to have a say over what you say online.

02:36Of course the organisation could be reputationally damaged by your behaviour outside the world of the programme that you do.

02:44Of course that's the case.

02:45I think maybe a bigger thing here, though, is that Gary Lineker runs a very successful podcast company.

02:51Yes.

02:52And he's absolutely coining it, probably on a lot more money than even the millions that the BBC was giving him.

02:58Is that the technical term?

02:59Coining it.

03:00Coining it, certainly.

03:01So I think perhaps there were perhaps economic incentives for him to move on and do his own thing,

03:07as that's sort of the way the world of broadcast is going.

03:10So you think the timing was right anyway?

03:12I think it probably was...

03:13Suited all parties.

03:14Yeah.

03:15I think it suited all the parties.

03:17But previously the BBC said, after a quarter of a century, Gary is stepping down from hosting Match of the Day at the end of this season.

03:25We will continue with Match of the Day Top 10 podcast.

03:29And the BBC will also host the hugely popular The Rest Is Football podcast on BBC Sound.

03:33Oh, yes.

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