‘Gary Lineker stole my job at the BBC – he was the wrong man and we haven’t spoken since’

Steve Rider is hanging up his microphone after a long career in sports broadcasting, but the former BBC and ITV presenter has taken aim at Gary Lineker on his way out

Gary Lineker recently ended his long tenure with the BBC(Image: PA)

Steve Rider admits he hasn’t spoken to Gary Lineker for years and still resents being replaced by the former Match of the Day presenter on the BBC’s golf coverage.

Rider is heading into retirement after 45 years on national television, having most recently hosted coverage of the British Touring Car Championship on ITV4. He has also covered the Olympic Games, the Rugby World Cup, Formula One – famously covering Ayrton Senna’s death at Imola – and the Champions League during his time with ITV and the BBC, becoming widely known as one of the safest names in sports broadcasting.

Rider started his career at ITV before moving to the BBC, spending nearly two decades with the corporation before returning to ITV in 2005. During his tenure with the Beeb, he served as the BBC’s lead golf presenter, covering major tournaments including the Ryder Cup, the Open and the Masters.

But when he departed, former England star Lineker was the surprise choice to be the new face of golf a decision that left Rider unimpressed.

He stayed silent on the subject until 2015, when Lineker infamously described the R&A as ‘pompous’ and accused them of feeling like ‘superior beings’. It prompted a stinging response from Rider.

In an interview with the Golf Paper, Rider stated: “I hold Gary Lineker in the highest regard as a football presenter, but his reflections on his experiences as a golf presenter need a huge reality check.

“For four years, the R&A and most other observers knew that Gary was the wrong man in the wrong job. Hazel Irvine has just delivered once again at the Open presentation skills of the highest quality. Not many people can do that and Gary certainly came up short.

“Roger Mosey, the head of sport, knew Gary was a golf fanatic and was further encouraged by Gary apparently volunteering for the Masters vacancy within a few minutes of my exit from Television Centre.

“But if Mosey thought long and hard before offering Gary the golf job, it’s even more baffling. Match of the Day is scripted and rehearsed. Golf presentation, especially at Augusta, is seat of the pants, unpredictable and demanding.”

Steve Rider will ‘sidle away’ from TV this summer(Image: Getty Images)

Rider hasn’t spoken to Lineker since then, as reported by The Telegraph. Now the 75 year old has had his say on Lineker’s recent exit from the BBC. Lineker presented his final Match of the Day last month.

He had been expected to leave the company next year, after the World Cup, but saw his permanent departure brought forwards, following an Instagram post that saw him criticise Zionism with a post featuring an image of a rat. Lineker insisted he was unaware of the historical use of rats to represent Jews in anti-semitic propaganda.

“To put forward his opinions so energetically, you need to step outside the framework of the BBC,” says Rider. “That message was never convincingly conveyed to him by the BBC, and that’s where they are at fault. He needed people looking after him before he pressed the button on some fairly volatile retweets.

“He needed to be saved from himself. So, there was a kind of inevitability about it.”