13 June 2024 , 11:21
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Mark Lawrenson bluntly admitted that Gary Lineker's £1.35million BBC salary is a fair wage for the Match of the Day presenter.
The Liverpool legend spent 21 years as an analyst on BBC's flagship show with 19 of those coming alongside Lineker who began presenting the show in 1999.
The England great is among the most notable broadcasters in the UK and is certainly compensated well by the BBC having been their best-paid employee for six years in a row.
In their 2023 annual report, Lineker was found to earn £370,000 more than the BBC's second-highest earner Zoe Ball and during an appearance on the Disruptors Podcast, hosted by Rob Moore, Lawrenson was asked whether Lineker's hefty salary was fair, to which he simply replied: "Yeah".
He explained: "Because he's very, very good, if you watch the programme every week, it's funny, they get to the point and he's got a word for everything. I don't know of any other footballer who could have done that and they wanted a footballer, especially wanting a little bit of a change following Des Lynam [who was] right up there.
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"When Gary started on Radio 5, you just thought there's no way in the world he's going to be fronting Match of the Day ever because he was hopeless, his own words not mine, and he slowly but surely got better and from day one, he did really, really well."
Mark Lawrenson spent 21 years on Match of the Day (BBC)The 69-year-old departed from the BBC at the end of the 2021-22 football season and has since blamed his exit from the corporation on him being "65 and white". He repeated his claim on the Ben Heath podcast earlier this year after claiming BBC has gone "top of the woke league".
"They are frightened to death, absolutely and totally frightened to death," the former defender said. "You have seen the stuff with Gary Lineker and obviously people at the head of the BBC, I think day by day, I think the integrity of the corporation gets chipped off. It used to be absolutely fantastic but they are woke, plus 100 per cent."
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