Gary Lineker has hosted Match of the Day since 1999 – BBC/Pete Dadds
The Gary Lineker crisis will not cost the BBC’s Match of the Day programme the rights to Premier League highlights after ITV declined to bid for them.
The corporation and its flagship football show are poised to retain their stranglehold on a contract they have held for almost two decades for another four years from 2025 following the decision by its only major rival.
The news comes eight months after Match of the Day was engulfed by its worst-ever crisis when Lineker publicly compared the Government’s language about its immigration policy with Nazi Germany.
Lineker’s comments saw him stood down as the show’s host, provoking a boycott by his fellow presenters, pundits and commentators that led to the programme being broadcast for the first time without any on-air talent.
The furore, which raised major doubts about the future of Match of the Day, culminated in a humiliating climbdown for BBC director-general Tim Davie after Lineker was reinstated.
ITV could have sought to capitalise on the unprecedented crisis after the Premier League issued its invitation to tender last month for its domestic broadcast rights from 2025-29.
But Telegraph Sport has been told it will not do so, continuing a policy of not competing for them dating back almost a decade.
Channel 4 was also said not to be planning a bid, with the commercial value of an evening highlights programme having plummeted in an era where clips from games are available online earlier in the day.
Snatching the rights from the BBC would also risk a backlash given the status of Match of the Day as something of a broadcasting institution, despite questions over whether it enjoys the same brand loyalty among younger viewers.
ITV last held the rights to Premier League highlights between 2001 and 2004, showcasing them in a programme called The Premiership, which was fronted by Des Lynam after he was also poached from Match of the Day.
The switch from the BBC was not warmly received, particularly the move to a primetime slot and the frequency of advert breaks, as well as ill-fated innovations such as Andy Townsend’s Tactics Truck.
Amid poor ratings, the programme was eventually moved back to its traditional Saturday evening slot.
The rights to top-flight English football highlights have switched between the BBC and ITV since Match of the Day began in 1964.
However, during the Premier League era, the BBC has held them for all but one three-year period.
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