Lineker transfer a live issue for the BBC
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UPDATED:
21:53 GMT, 22 May 2012
BBC Sport’s lack of live football makes them vulnerable to losing lead presenter Gary Lineker when his contract expires at the end of next season.
Lineker is being paid 2million a year to host Match of the Day and the Olympics.
He is expected to be tempted by much more attractive offers than the Beeb’s rather tired highlights show and the two-year wait between European Championships and World Cups.
Considering his options: Gary Lineker might be tempted by a more lucrative offer when his contract runs out
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Certainly Lineker, in line with his BBC football colleague Alan Hansen, will be facing a considerable pay reduction in his next deal with the cuts-ravaged Corporation.
Fox Soccer in America is now headed by Englishman Jonty Whitehead, who signed Lineker for Al Jazeera’s Champions League coverage.
Fox have already expressed interest in bringing the England goalscorer turned broadcaster to Los Angeles, while ESPN is another possibility.
And Lineker would be the obvious choice to lead Middle East network Al Jazeera’s screening of the Premier League if the money-no-object operation were to win packages in the current tender for UK rights.
Test Match trouble
Test Match Sofa, the irreverent, ball-by-ball online commentary, is irritating the ECB enough for them to be taking legal advice over the threat it causes to their BBC Radio rights holder, Test Match Special.
And radio summariser Vic Marks has joined colleague Jonathan Agnew in leaving the revamped editorial board of The Cricketer magazine, who own the Sofa, because of the conflict.
Tweet carefully
England coach Gary Neville has decided he will have to limit his prolific media output during Euro 2012. Neville, who starting posting tweets from 6.30am yesterday, will only use the social network sparingly in Poland and Ukraine.
And Neville will not be writing his Sunday newspaper column from the European Championship, nor will any of his articles focus at all on England matters while he works for the FA.
Cautious: Gary Neville will have to be careful about what he tweets and writes
The England players are not allowed to put their names to exclusive columns during the Euros and will be told when the squad meets up to be careful what they post on Twitter.
The mischief-making power of Twitter is demonstrated by all the talk in Munich over whether banned Chelsea captain John Terry put on shin pads when he changed from his suit into his kit during the Champions league final. The debate was sparked by a joke tweet from ex-England cricket captain Michael Vaughan.
Anderson book reading
There are a number of ECB executives going through every word of Jimmy Anderson’s autobiography manuscript. This follows the furore over Graeme Swann making disparaging comments about England team-mate Kevin Pietersen not being a good captain in his book, which the ECB claimed they weren’t given enough time to read before publication.
Suffered: Kevin Pietersen was the butt of some remarks in Graeme Swann's autobiography
Non-starter Bannister
Athletics legend Sir Roger Bannister, high on the list of favourites to light the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony, appeared to rule himself out of contention at the Journalists’ Charity salute to the Olympians lunch on Tuesday. Sir Roger said his only involvement would be helping with the torch relay when it goes around the Iffley Road track in Oxford where he ran the first sub-four-minute mile in 1954.
Cameron contrast
Prime Minister David Cameron shamelessly used a G8 summit photo opportunity to celebrate, arms aloft, Chelsea winning the Champions League final penalty shootout — promoting his questionable status as a genuine football fan.
In contrast, Liberal Democrat grandee Sir Menzies Campbell, an Olympic sprinter, used his speech at the Journalists’ Charity function to plead for more coverage of track and field in newspapers as well as other sports that are ‘not football’.
Get in: David Cameron's delight at Chelsea's victory over Bayern Munich is obvious
Old Olympians pay postage
Britain’s few surviving 1948 Olympians have rightly been given tickets to the 2012 Games. But they will have to pay 6 recorded delivery postage costs. LOCOG say this is to guarantee tickets go to the right people.
The biggest test of Ticketmaster’s flawed online selling of Olympic tickets will take place this morning when the remaining seats go on general sale. London 2012 warn that buyers face 30 minute-plus queues.
