Gary Lineker on the BBC, Tuchel and Bellingham and Southbank Centre takeover

Evening Standard

Gary Lineker spoke to The Standard about his thoughts on the BBC and Trump, as well as Tuchel's recent handling of Bellingham. He also announced his takeover of the Southbank Centre for The Rest is Fest.

Transcript

00:00The BBC will make mistakes. I think people are trying to make an issue out of the Bellingham

00:05and Tuchel thing. Well, the Restless Fest taking place in September 2026. It will be a mishmash of

00:12all our podcasts. We'll be doing live shows here. I'll be doing the Restless football and it'll be

00:18quite nerve-wracking doing it in front of these many people, even though I've played in football

00:22with big crowds, but it's going to be a lot of fun. I think we've worked out it's really the

00:26chemistry between the hosts that makes a good podcast and they need to really, really know

00:32their subject and they need to have that little bit of magic between them. And also it needs to

00:41be regular. You can't do a series of eight and then disappear for three months. People want it all the

00:47time. So we have a motto called Always On. I listen to the news agents sometimes, depending on the

00:53subject, what's happening. I listen to one or two interview ones if I'm interested in the guest.

01:02So even, you know, I don't really love the ones that go on for hours. But, you know, there's still,

01:09if there's a good guest on an interview show like Joe Rogan, I will listen.

01:15And we've got so many now, obviously across the rest is particularly, and then there's Empire and

01:21there's the Sherlock and co, which is the best drama pod or the number one drama pod in the UK,

01:28which is ours. So I listen to all of them at different times. I listen to them when I'm walking

01:34my dog. I do it when I'm cooking, when I'm traveling, because I always get the tube or the train. So I'm

01:44trying to keep pace with all our podcasts. There are just not enough hours in the day to listen to

01:48every episode of every series, but I do listen to the vast majority.

01:53Well, the BBC, you know, it's a huge institution. I love the BBC and I love the people that work there.

01:58It will always have trials and tribulations. It can't not do. There will always be mistakes made.

02:04And clearly this was a silly mistake. I don't know how it happened. No idea. And they didn't even need

02:13to do that to make it look the way it did, because we all know he had something to do with January the

02:196th. So the BBC will make mistakes. It makes thousands and thousands and thousands of hours of

02:27television and news and stuff. So there's going to be the odd thing. And the four guys generally,

02:32the director general, pretty much all of them have had the sack over the last 30 years at some point.

02:38So there'll be ups and downs of the BBC, but it remains, it remains, I think, the most respected

02:45and the fairest media organisation that there is. So we can learn a lot.

02:53I don't, I think people are trying to make an issue out of the Bellingham and Tuchel thing. I don't think

03:00there probably is. You know, Jude's a huge superstar. He's just come back from injury. That's probably why

03:06I didn't put him in the last squad. Thomas Tuchel may be trying to make a point to Sho's boss. I suspect he's not.

03:16I think when they came over to this squad, he probably said to him, I'm going to, everyone's

03:21going to play, you know, one and a bit games. I'm going to give you half an hour in this game,

03:25and then you're going to play in the next game. And then the press, you know, they'll be asking him

03:30questions. And Thomas answers quite honestly. But I very, very much doubt there is an issue.

03:37I think it would be probably grossly exaggerated. I'm very, very non-confrontational. I can't cope.

03:44I can't cope with it. I don't like upsetting people. So I definitely couldn't be a manager.

03:51I could run a media empire, but not a football team.

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