Gary Linker has said he believes his win at this year’s NTA is proof that “maybe sometimes it’s good if we use our platform” to speak out about causes that are close to people’s hearts.
On Wednesday night, the former Match of the Day host won the Best Presenter award at the National Television Awards – a title that had previously gone to Ant and Dec for 23 consecutive years.
However, it was revealed during this year’s ceremony that the award, voted for by members of the public, had been given to the former England striker, who had pulled out of this year’s match earlier in the day after a very public row.
Reacting to the Britain’s Got Talent Hosters winning streak being ended, Gary squealed: “Blimey, I’ve won the Ant and Dec trophy! Right, what can I say?”
“First of all, of course, thank you to everyone who voted for me. It’s really appreciated. It’s amazing.”
“I remember when I first started presenting Match of the Day about a quarter of a century ago and there were these two young Geordies who were just making a name for themselves and I thought to myself, ‘These boys are going to win this award, the NTA, every year until Newcastle win the trophy’. So there you have it.”
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Commenting on the significance of his win, he then noted: “It’s not lost on me why I probably should have won this award. On top of being on Game of the Day, the most iconic football show on television for 26 years, and there are so many amazing people that I’ve worked with both in front of the camera and behind the camera that have been there in that time. I want it to be huge, if it wasn’t for you, it would be for every single one of them, and I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t there.”
Gary added, “Also… I think it shows that maybe it’s good that sometimes we use our platform to speak up for those who don’t have a voice. Thank you, it means the world.”
Back in May, Gary issued a public apology after unknowingly retweeting anti-Semitic-coded images on social media when he reposted a video titled “Zionism Explained in Less Than Two Minutes,” which discussed the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
What he didn’t seem to realize was that it was covered with a cartoon image of a rat, an anti-Semitic trope dating back to Nazi Germany.
Having already announced that he would be stepping down from daytime matches at the end of the football season, Gary made the decision to leave the show early as a result of the controversy.
“As I’ve said before, I would never knowingly republish anything anti-Semitic – it goes against everything I stand for,” he insisted at the time.
“However, I recognize the mistake and the confusion I caused, and reiterate how sorry I am. Stepping down now feels like the responsible thing to do.”
Two years before that, Gary was at the centre of a separate media storm when his posts criticising the former Conservative government’s migration policies were found to have breached BBC guidelines around objectivity.
As a result, the BBC management team announced that Gary would not be presenting this week’s edition of Match of the Day, which led to several of his BBC Sport colleagues also pulling out of their duties in solidarity.
The BBC’s decision sparked widespread controversy, resulting in Gary being reinstated as daytime host of The Local a few days later.
After his tenure at the BBC ended, Gary was repeatedly named the corporation’s highest-earning star.
He is now with the podcast The Rest Is Football with Alan Shearer and Mitch Richards. Last month, he was announced as the host of a new ITV gameshow called The Box in the area.
