Gary Lineker explains why he made surprise ITV World Cup appearance

Gary Lineker has explained his surprise ITV cameo during World Cup coverage of Germany against Ivory Coast on Saturday (20 June).

The presenter, who fronted the BBC’s Match of the Day for 26 years until he departed the corporation last May, made a slight dig at his former employer after they had drawn criticism for not being based in America for the World Cup, especially given ITV’s eye-catching New York studio backdrop.

Explaining why he appeared on ITV, Lineker told The Rest is Football: “I was making an appearance to promote my show, The Box, which is also on ITV in September. And also, I wanted to go and have a little look at the studio, and to promote our Netflix show... So I mean, just purely professional reasons.”