Gary Lineker has branded the BBC ‘soulless’ over its decision to not have a studio based in the United States for the World Cup.
The BBC has opted to stay at home for this summer’s tournament as its coverage will be broadcast from a studio in Salford.
For the opening World Cup game on Thursday night, ITV unveiled its impressive rooftop studio in Brooklyn which includes a stunning backdrop of the Manhattan skyline.
Lineker, meanwhile, is also based in New York for the World Cup as the studio for his The Rest Is Football show, which is hosted by Netflix, overlooks Times Square.
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The 65-year-old was due to front its coverage of this year’s World Cup, which is hosted in the United States, Canada and Mexico, before his exit a year ago.
‘I am very surprised the Beeb are not coming,’ Lineker said in an interview with The Telegraph.
‘It doesn’t make sense to me. I understand that whatever they do they get criticised because that is the nature of the BBC.
‘But I must say this World Cup is the biggest deal over the next five or six weeks. It will probably get the vast majority of the most watched television programmes of the year.
‘Almost certainly therefore it justifies a presence. And they [the BBC] will cover it fine… but I have done many shows when we have not been able to go to tournaments and you are in a green box. Even if it looks like you are not at home – you are. And it’s soulless.’
Why the BBC do not have a studio in the United States for the World Cup?
BBC director of sport Alex Kay-Jelski has claimed that the broadcaster has saved ‘millions’ by being based in Salford for the World Cup and insists the decision has no impact on the ‘actual end product’ for viewers.
‘It’s not a green box in Salford. It’s a beautiful state-of-the-art studio. No one’s seen it until now,’ Kay-Jelski said.
‘It’s completely fine to assume that what was there before was what it was going to be. And I’m really proud of this.
‘To have what would probably be an extra couple of hundred people out there, and that’s before you build a studio, you’re talking millions.
‘The actual end product people are getting at home, I don’t really think it’s that different.
‘If I was standing here saying, ‘Everything is going to be done from a studio in Dallas’, you would rightly be saying to me, ‘How can you justify that spend?’
‘We’ve still got the people on the ground. You’ve got pundits. Alan Shearer and Danny Murphy are out there. Various commentators, journalists.
‘I don’t think we’re going to have a problem bringing that feeling across. If these people were sitting somewhere else, would your viewing be massively changed?’
‘Right now I’m incredibly happy with it. It’s a six-week, high-profile tournament. We’re going to get some stuff wrong and we’re going to get, hopefully, way more right.’
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