Broadcasting great Steve Rider has sensationally claimed that former Match of the Day host Gary Lineker ‘took his job’.
Rider’s 48-year-career in the industry came to an end on Sunday as he was part of ITV4’s presentation team for the British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park.
He became a familiar face on British TV screens after becoming a regular presenter on BBC‘s Grandstand.
Rider also led coverage for rugby, golf, motorsports and rowing events for the BBC, along with Sports Personality of the Year.
He then left the BBC in 2005 to join ITV, where he became the anchor of their F1 and World Cup coverage.
Now his feud with ex-Match of the Day anchor Lineker, which stretches back two decades, can be revealed.
Steve Rider has a long-running feud with Lineker that stretches all the way back to 2005
That year, Rider appeared to be aggrieved at the BBC’s choice to replace him as head of its golf coverage with Lineker, who he believed was not suited to the role
When he returned to ITV in 2005, Rider was said to be unimpressed by the BBC’s decision to replace him as its leading golf presenter with Gary Lineker.
Speaking to The Telegraph, he said: ‘Most other observers knew that Gary was the wrong man in the wrong job.’
Rider also expressed surprise at Lineker’s zeal to become involved with politics while working for the organisation.
He added: ‘To put forward his opinions so energetically, you need to step outside the framework of the BBC.
‘That message was never convincingly conveyed to him by the BBC, and that’s where they are at fault.
‘He needed people looking after him before he pressed the button on some fairly volatile retweets. He needed to be saved from himself. So, there was a kind of inevitability about it.’
Those comments come a decade after he described the R&A – golf’s governing body – of being ‘pompous’ and acting as though they were ‘superior beings’.
Further scathing comments to The Golf Paper in 2015 saw him state: ‘For four years, the R&A and most other observers knew that Gary was the wrong man in the wrong job. Hazel Irvine has just delivered once again at the Open presentation skills of the highest quality.
This season was Lineker’s last presenting Match of the Day
‘Not many people can do that and Gary certainly came up short.
‘Roger Mosey, the head of sport, knew Gary was a golf fanatic and was further encouraged by Gary apparently volunteering for the Masters vacancy within a few minutes of my exit from Television Centre.
‘But if Mosey thought long and hard before offering Gary the golf job, it’s even more baffling. Match of the Day is scripted and rehearsed.
‘Golf presentation, especially at Augusta, is seat of the pants, unpredictable and demanding.’