BBC presenter stunned after seeing behind the scenes at Match of the Day studio with Gary Lineker
BBC presenter Matt Allwright was left shocked when given a behind the scenes tour of the Match of the Day set by Gary Lineker.
The Beeb’s iconic football highlights show is celebrating its 60th anniversary this week.
Lineker, who has hosted Match of the Day since 1999, was being interviewed by BBC colleague Allwright for a piece on the One Show about the historic moment.
And the Leicester and England legend gave Allwright a tour of the studio, leaving him flabbergasted at what the set looks like in real life.
Allwright claimed he “couldn’t get over” the fact almost the entire set is made up of GREEN SCREENS.
Other than the pundits’ chairs and tables, everything is added in post-production with the set unrecognisable in person.
Lineker is now in his 25th year as host of Match of the Day, having taken over from Des Lynam before the turn of the century.
And the 63-year-old has said that his lengthy stint in the hot-seat has been “amazing”.
Although he did cast doubt over his future on the show in an interview with BBC Breakfast, as he heads into the final year of his current deal with the free-to-air broadcaster.
He said: “I don’t know [how long I’ll stay]! It depends how long they want me, I suppose.
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“I love doing it at the moment; I’ve still got another year left, at least.
“So we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Obviously it’s another change in football and television and the rights of the Premier League and stuff like that.
“All of these things will play a part. But I just feel it’s been an absolute privilege to have presented it for 25 years now. I must be getting old!”
Lineker has already been snubbed for the BBC’s new Champions League highlights show that begins this season.
Instead, Gabby Logan is reportedly set to be the head presenter for the new European football show.
Whether he leaves or not, Lineker will have left his mark on the show – not least because many viewers will have never seen Match of the Day without the former Barcelona bagsman.
But also because he actually helped transform the show’s format back in 2004 with a crucial tweak to the BBC’s coverage.
The Beeb had lost the rights to show Premier League highlights to broadcasting rival ITV in 2001.
So when they regained the rights in 2004, at the end of ITV’s three-year contract, Lineker wanted to “stop fans moaning” about the coverage.
The Three Lions icon asked if the show could provide highlights for EVERY Prem match, something it had not been doing previously.
He explained: “When it came back, when we got the rights back, I said, ‘Is there any way we could show all the games?’
“We found a way of doing it and I thought, ‘Right, we finally won’t get people moaning that they’re never on Match of the Day‘.
“But of course then it becomes about where they are on Match of the Day, on the running order! ‘We’re always last’.”