Gary Lineker made a surprise return to BBC Sport's coverage of England's World Cup semi-final win over Norway, gate-crashing the studio to share his thoughts on the match
Stephen Killen Senior Football Writer, Aaron Morris Senior Sports Reporter and James Smailes Head of All Out Rugby League and Yorkshire sport at Reach plc
11:13, 12 Jul 2026Updated 11:18, 12 Jul 2026
Gary Lineker, former England footballer, following an interview for Bloomberg's "The Mishal Husain Show" podcast in London.
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Gary Lineker left the BBC last year.(Image: Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Gary Lineker made an unexpected appearance during BBC Sport's coverage of England's 2-1 victory over Norway, delivering an awkward cameo that caught his fellow pundits off guard. The former Three Lions captain burst into Micah Richards' segment uninvited following Jude Bellingham's match-winning brace.
BBC Sport picked up broadcasting duties for Thomas Tuchel's side securing their World Cup semi-final berth, after ITV held the rights to the quarter-final fixture.
Wayne Rooney and Ellen White were on hand to analyse the extra-time win, with Richards joining remotely from New York, when Lineker gatecrashed proceedings midway through the programme.
The pundits were dissecting England's overturned penalty, after referee Clement Turpin reversed his original decision, ruling that Djed Spence had initiated contact with Oscar Bobb before going to ground.
Micah Richard and Gary Lineker
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Gary Lineker raided BBC Sport's reaction to England's win over Norway(Image: BBC Football/YouTube)
Richards was mid-flow in his assessment of the French official's U-turn when Lineker unexpectedly jumped into shot, clad in an England shirt, reports the Mirror.
Lineker said: "Definitely a penalty," leaving Richards taken aback, as he added: "Come on England. Nice to see you all there."
The 65-year-old promptly made his exit, prompting Rooney to fire a playful parting shot, remarking: "Kit looks a bit snug there, Gaz," in jest.
Lineker appeared notably more buoyant about this World Cup result than he had been following Argentina's contentious 3-2 win over Egypt, having taken to The Rest Is Football earlier in the week to lambast a potentially decisive VAR ruling. Egypt appeared to have doubled their advantage early in the second half of their round of 16 encounter, with Mostafa Ziko finishing comfortably following brilliant build-up play from Haissem Hassan and Mohamed Salah.
However, VAR intervened, identifying what they considered to be a foul on Lisandro Martinez during the passage of play, disallowing the goal and keeping the scoreline at 1-0. The decision did not sit well with Lineker, who voiced his frustration at VAR's inconsistent approach to getting involved in referee decisions throughout the tournament.
He said: "The problem is we will never, ever get consistency from VAR because they change their tune. They weren't involved much at the start of the tournament, then they want to get involved, now they're being more involved, now they'll probably be less involved because there'll be a bit of a stink about this one.
"The problem is not necessarily all of the people doing VAR, the problem is VAR itself."
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He further added: "That's where the problem with VAR is, this thing about, 'Is it enough of a foul?' If they just changed it and said it's either a foul or not, but at the moment they're still using this thing - it has to be enough of a turnover.
"Therefore, it will always be a nightmare. The only way out of this, as I've said a million times, is an appeal system which will eventually come, because we can't carry on as it is."
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