Not since Celia Johnson laid eyes on Trevor Howard has the nation been so captivated by a brief encounter. But the anticipation will finally come to an end on Saturday night when Gary Lineker, in front of a likely audience of more than 4 million people, presents Match of the Day in his underpants.
At least, we think he will. As of Friday morning, the BBC presenter and former England striker was still being a little coy about his imminent striptease on the first weekend of the Premier League season.
“We’ll have to wait and see what happens,” Lineker told the Guardian, when asked to confirm his partly clothed punditry. “It depends on how cold the studio is. If they get it nice and cosy, it might just work.”
Later on Friday he continued to tease his social media followers, posting this on Twitter.
Big thank you to Jim in lighting for standing in for me in rehearsals today. #motd pic.twitter.com/vPYwoWRpEs
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) August 12, 2016
Lineker also refused to specify which brand of underpant he would be wearing, saying “I generally have a brand of brief on every day,” although the BBC’s commercial rules would probably necessitate any logo being covered in double-sided sticky tape. “I’ve given it a lot of thought, and again you will have to wait and see, but apparently there’s been a lot of betting on the outcome,” he said.
One detail Lineker was willing to divulge was that, if the strip goes ahead, it will certainly not be for the duration of Match of the Day’s 90 minutes. When asked how he would hope to extract tactical analysis from Alan Shearer while largely in the buff, Lineker’s velvet voice turned steely. “Doing the entirety of the show in my pants would become a bit farcical,” he said.
This moment has been in the offing since December, when Lineker tweeted that he would present the venerable highlights show in “just my undies” if his beloved Leicester City won the league. At that point, the Foxes sat on top of the table, but remained rank outsiders. Five months later and Claudio Ranieri’s men had won the title by 10 points.
Gulp! https://t.co/zzbaVj2Nya
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) August 11, 2016
If that's what does it for you Claudio. https://t.co/7TzX9IwVLJ
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) August 11, 2016
“I think Leicester’s win was a one-off, which makes their achievement all the more special,” Lineker said. “Last season was nothing short of a sporting miracle and it’s not going to happen again. That said, I think there’s something of the unknown about the Premier League now.
“Look at the other European leagues and there are one or two likely challengers for the title. In our league this season, there are quite comfortably five or six. Plus we’ve had an influx of the world’s big-name managers and are starting to attract big players too. It’s astonishingly difficult to predict a winner.”
When asked to complete the phrase “the Premier League is the _____ league in the world,” Lineker replied: “Richest.”
The former Everton and Spurs forward’s potential trouser-free appearance comes in the week that his fellow BBC presenter Helen Skelton was chastised for her choice of clothing during Olympics coverage. Via traditional and social media, critics claimed that her skirt was too short, despite the fact that it was longer than the shorts worn by her colleague Mark Foster. While Lineker professed to being ignorant of the specific furore, he said controversy was becoming all too easy to generate.
“There is Twitter outrage at everything,” he said. “Be it a pair of trousers or a short skirt, somebody, somewhere will not like it. It’s best completely ignored. It will just be some silly keyboard warrior taking umbrage, often just to troll. I’ve got about 5 million followers on Twitter and if I tweet anything there will be faux outrage. What you learn is that you can’t please everyone all the time. But, for the press, this outrage is sometimes quite useful.”
Anyway, back to the matter in hand. Lineker has always been renowned as a remorselessly dedicated athlete and posted Instagram photos of himself in the gym ahead of this weekend’s date with under-fate. Was not even a small part of him looking forward to baring his bod for the nation? “You are joking aren’t you?” he asked. “No, it’s terrifying!”
Gary Lineker will be presenting Match of the Day on BBC1 on Saturday at 10.30pm
