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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