BBC vastly overpays Match of the Day's Gary Lineker but he's no Des Lynam - Yorkshire Post Letters

TOM Richmond was right on the money in his scathing attack on the BBC for vastly overpaying Gary Lineker (The Yorkshire Post, August 21).

Many of us have wondered for several years how he and his chums hang on to the prestigious Match of the Day presentation roles.

Granted, it’s not his fault that he’s not in the same league as Des Lynam, David Coleman or Brian Moore, but there are many excellent sports presenters around who have spent years learning their trade as journalists, such as Colin Murray, Jeff Stelling or Mark Pougatch (whose ITV led coverage of the Euros was far and away better than the BBC).

Any one of these, or several others, would be an improvement.

The BBC could do worse than asking the real fans what they think Lineker’s worth is; they might be shocked.

From: James Buick, Northallerton.

GARY Lineker might be a freelance – but the BBC should have placed safeguards on his contract to prevent him being able to work for rival channels in addition to claiming £1.36m a year from licence fee payers. The sooner he goes, the better.

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