Gary Lineker: Why BT Sport presenter is quitting Champions League host spot after six years

Gary Lineker will spend next season following Leicester City in Europe with his sons instead of fronting BT Sport’s coverage of the Champions League.

Lineker was recruited by BT to front their Champions League coverage in 2015, which they had paid nearly £900m to show, taking coverage away from ITV.

The move to a subscription package was controversial – and indeed it remains so to this day – but the former striker quickly made the channel’s flagship coverage his own, presenting its first final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in Milan.

Hosting that game alongside Rio Ferdinand and Steve McManaman, he has been the lead anchor for all five showpiece events since, as well as the midweek group and knockout fixtures.

Earlier this season, the ex-England international was a rare absentee after a colleague’s positive Covid-19 test forced him to miss the semi-final between Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City and watch the game as a supporter, something he says he will enjoy doing more of in the future.

“I’ve loved hosting the best club tournament in world football and I’m genuinely proud of being part of their truly groundbreaking coverage over the past six years,” Lineker wrote on Twitter.

While confirming he had been offered a new deal, he added: “I feel it’s time to do things that I’ve always promised myself I’d so: such as follow Leicester across Europe with my sons (how many opportunities will we have?)”

A well-documented Leicester fan who started his career with the Foxes, he hosted the club’s first ever Champions League campaign in 2016-17. Perhaps it is best he will be in the stands, rather than the studio, for their next continental tour via the Europa League, with his FA Cup final coverage for the BBC attracting 124 complaints for “bias” in favour of the Foxes against Chelsea.

With a self-deprecating wit which ensured he was never the star attraction but endeared him to thousand of viewers, his reactions spoke of genuine awe for European competition.

After breaking into hysteria alongside Ferdinand and Glenn Hoddle after Lucas Moura’s hat-trick for Tottenham against Ajax in 2019, the former Spurs frontman could hardly contain his reverence for the biggest stage in club football.

“I thought last night [Liverpool’s 4-0 comeback against Barcelona] that I’d seen everything,” he said.

“But this is football. This is the Champions League.”

One of TV’s great raconteurs, he wowed pundits too with a poignant tribute to Diego Maradona, recalling his “beautiful affection for a football”.

It remains to be seen what the future of BT Sport’s coverage will look like. The UK’s second-biggest football broadcaster are reportedly planning to axe the channel after finding the costs prohibitive.

That could see the Champions League move elsewhere regardless, but it will look very different without its most familiar face.