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The 2026 World Cup is underway, bringing the biggest tournament in the planet’s most popular sport to North America. It’s a familiar environment for Gary Lineker, who was a top goalscorer for England before becoming a BBC sports anchor. He’s now a media boss through his company, Goalhanger, and for the World Cup Netflix is turning his hit podcast, The Rest Is Football , into a high-profile show. Already, there’s plenty to discuss off the pitch, from Iran’s players needing to fly in from Mexico for their US matches, to strict border security on arrival for some other teams. On the issue of a top African referee being denied a US visa, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said people should “ chill, relax .”
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. You can listen to an extended version on The Mishal Husain Show podcast.
You’ve seen many World Cups — your first as a player was 1986. Set the scene for this one .
Football-wise, I think once it gets underway, it will hopefully be eventful, entertaining and live up to expectations.
It’s more off the field there are concerns, but that’s been the case [at] every World Cup that I’ve covered and played in: 1986 was Mexican cartels; in 1990 England had [a] huge hooliganism problem and [then-Prime Minister Margaret] Thatcher tried to pull us out.
Even in recent times: 2014 [Brazil], huge demonstrations on the streets saying they shouldn’t be spending this amount of money on stadiums; 2018 [Russia], four years after the invasion of Crimea; [2022] Qatar, we were talking about LGBTQ rights [and] people dying in the building of the stadiums.
I’m used to this. In the build-up to a World Cup it’s all about problems. Then once it starts, it focuses on football. But there is a distinct possibility that [this time] one of the three host nations, America, could be at war with one of the teams in the tournament.
As things stand, Iran are coming. 1
1 After some Iranian team staff were denied US visas, Mexico stepped in and offered to host the team’s base. Iran’s players are now expected to travel to Los Angeles ahead of their first game on June 15, against New Zealand, but their fan ticket allocation for US games has been revoked .
They are coming. We don’t know from day to day what’s going to happen, so this is a little bit different.
In Russia, everything was cleaned up . A lot of the Russian people were saying, This is the best it’s ever been here. It’s amazing. I’m hoping it will be a little bit like that and ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents] are not taking fans off the streets . Who knows?
Do you think FIFA President Gianni Infantino ’s close friendship with President Trump has gone beyond the norm when a country’s about to host the World Cup?
I find it very peculiar, very odd. I think we call him “Sycophant-ino” now. The [FIFA] Peace Prize and all that nonsense — it’s a concern.
The pricing of tickets is astronomical compared with previous World Cups. FIFA [is] supposed to be a not-for-profit organization. They’ve got billions in the bank and it’s supposed to go straight back into the sport. Hopefully it does.
One of the great joys of a World Cup [is] seeing all the fans turning up. Is it just going to be purely corporate? Are we pricing out real supporters? 2
2 FIFA introduced dynamic ticket pricing for this World Cup, which recently pushed prices for some seats at the final to $32,970 each . There is also an official FIFA resale site, where tickets for that game have been listed for over $2 million . New York and New Jersey are currently investigating the ticketing process.
The Peace Prize you mentioned. Fill in the blanks for anyone who didn’t follow it at the time.
Can you fill them in for me please? [ Laughs ]
Well — not long after Donald Trump did not win the Nobel Peace Prize, it was announced that he was going to win a FIFA Peace Prize. 3
3 The prize was announced in November as an annual award to an individual’s “extraordinary action for peace” and presented to Trump at the World Cup draw the following month. Norway’s top football official supported a subsequent ethics complaint against Infantino and called for the prize to be abolished.
I just don’t understand why. I think it was partly ego.
Whose ego?
Infantino’s. He seems to be cozying up to the president — fair enough, but I thought that was a step too far. I mean, who’s going to win it in four years’ time? Netanyahu?
At the time he said that Trump deserved to win this prize. But there’s a lack of transparency around the criteria.
I’d love to know the criteria. 4
4 FIFA declined to respond directly to Lineker’s “cozying up” criticism. Instead, they directed us to a Sky News interview where Infantino argued that the US president was “very motivated” to help FIFA and grow the game. On ticket prices, a FIFA spokesperson said the organization was “focused on ensuring fair access” and reinvesting revenue across member associations.
Are these questions you can ask on the podcast? The Rest is Football is on Netflix every day through the World Cup.
Absolutely, I would think so. That’s the beauty of a podcast; you can go where you want.
But it’s new, isn’t it, Netflix putting a podcast like yours on? I just wondered if there’s going to be a different vibe, or even an understanding with them?
Netflix said they wanted our podcast to give them a part of the World Cup that they didn’t have four years ago. They liked the way it was.
We’ll have a lot of fun. We’ll talk a lot about football. We’ll naturally discuss if ordinary fans can’t get in, or any issues going on outside.
Have you got a guarantee from Netflix that if you want to criticize President Trump on air, that’s okay?
I’ve not asked them that question. I suspect that it’ll be okay. 5
5 Lineker and his co-hosts raised pre-tournament controversies in the show’s first episode , including the US refusal to allow entry to Somali referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan . Trump has been notably litigious in office, with an ongoing case against the BBC and a new $10 billion lawsuit filed against the Wall Street Journal , and has railed against critical TV hosts.
How do you feel about it being a bigger tournament than usual? Forty-eight teams this time. I’ve heard Infantino say it’s more inclusive; teams are making their World Cup debut. Others say it’s a money grab .
I think it’s a bit of both. There are players and countries that will have an opportunity to play in a World Cup, which they would never have been able to do. That’s a real positive.
[But] the number of games that the players are going to be asked to play in tough conditions will be really difficult and demanding. I think a lot of the interest in the group stages will be [in] the smaller nations playing for the first time. That will be special, but the World Cup will really start once you get to the last 32. 6
6 FIFA expects to earn almost $9 billion in this World Cup year — $13 billion over the four-year cycle. That “unprecedented” target was driven by broadcast and marketing rights as well as ticket sales and hospitality in North American stadiums, many of which regularly host National Football League games.
Read More: Some World Cup Teams Will Face a Much Hotter Tournament
People in the UK will know you for long being the voice of football on the BBC. You’re now going to have this global audience. How different an experience will it be for you?
It will be quite different. This is a higher-end production, because it’s also going to be a TV show that goes out “as-live.” Slightly daunting, but incredibly exciting.
Obviously, we’re not showing any of the games — such is the nature of the World Cup and the way rights are sold. But who knows — the way the world is changing, the way television is changing — whether one entity, Netflix, Amazon or whoever, could buy the whole World Cup rights to show everywhere? 7
7 Netflix has secured exclusive rights to stream the 2027 and 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cups in the US and Canada.
It reminds me of the Olympics in 2012. You and I were both part of the BBC presenting lineup. That was a moment where you were going beyond football.
I had done golf and worked on the Olympics in 1996, but the London Olympics was prime time. God, I had to do some studying for that. [ Laughs ]
Do you remember the book they gave us? 8
8 It was more file than book, actually, and often referred to within BBC Sport as “the Bible.” Alongside the rules of each event, its history at the Olympics and the major competing countries, there was information that could be used as “color” if you had to unexpectedly fill time and talk over pictures of a less familiar sport — as happened to me once with taekwondo.
Yes. We had one like that for the World Cup [but] I never really read it. I know football. I know all the players. I watch a million games a year. With the Olympics, I had to do so much research into how the sports worked. You can’t go on a show like that and not know your stuff.
I do want to ask you about funding and investment in English football over the last two decades. You’ve seen this: It’s not just individual wealthy owners, but now sovereign wealth funds and private equity. What’s the impact on the game?
It does concern me, but that train has left the station. Most Premier League teams are owned by Americans — [mostly] billionaires — which is odd considering it’s not their sport, really.
It’s becoming more their sport, though?
The interest is growing. It’s funny. My American friends are going, Do you think we’ve got a good chance [at the World Cup] ? I’m going, Zero chance . Sorry, any American readers!
Someone has to break it to them.
It’s better to know, because it’s the hope that destroys you. We’ve learned that . 9
9 By “we,” Lineker means England, where the men’s team’s only major tournament win was 60 years ago. On Friday’s third episode of The Rest Is Football , he discussed England’s upcoming first match against Croatia with former players Frank Lampard and Joe Cole. As for the US Men’s National Team — or USMNT as it’s often known — Lineker is referring to the fact that at 17th in the FIFA rankings , the US is outside the elite group of likely World Cup winners.
In the Premier League, does money of that kind mean players start to be treated more as commodities? Or was that always the case? 10
10 This was on my mind after reading a Bloomberg analysis of ownership of European football clubs. Investment firms and high-net-worth individuals from the US have been the biggest buyers in recent years, and the sale of players has become an increasingly important source of revenue .
It’s better than it used to be. The players actually have quite a bit of control now on things and obviously they earn huge, huge salaries. When I was playing, you were basically a piece of meat — you could be sold anywhere, and they basically threatened you: You’ll play in the reserves if you don’t go .
It’s probably gone a bit out of control in some ways, but football’s big business now — huge business.
Does doing the World Cup on Netflix mean something to you personally, after leaving the BBC?
I knew we’d do the podcast anyway — but I feel really chuffed. I was with the BBC a long time and I think it was like a long marriage, in the end. We just got fed up of each other.
Do you regret the way it came to an end?
Yeah. I think it was unfortunate.
There was an Instagram post about the Israeli issue. I missed it, but there was a little rat emoji on the post I put on my story. Apparently it has connotations around Jewish tropes. I would never imagine for a minute that any kind of human being should be compared with a rat. It was really unfortunate. I apologized [and] thought that should probably be enough, but it wasn’t. In the end, I just thought, Oh, come on. Let’s just end this. We’re not getting on very well at the moment .
I don’t think anybody thought I did that deliberately. I am stupid, but I’m not that stupid. It’s unfortunate and if it upset anyone, I remain sorry to this day. But it was certainly not deliberate. 11
11 Lineker’s post drew complaints that in his advocacy for Palestinian rights he overlooked imagery reminiscent of Nazi-era propaganda depicting Jews as vermin . The Board of Deputies of British Jews welcomed his departure from the UK’s publicly funded broadcaster.
Maybe it was for the best. Not the way it happened, but the freedom — not treading on eggshells anymore. It’s [been] very difficult at the BBC the last few years. In news and current affairs, you’ve always had to be evenly balanced, but that never applied to anyone outside news and current affairs until they decided to move the goalposts.
I’d already been on social media a few years, and I have views. Suddenly they’re saying, You can’t have any views anymore . I just thought, Well no, there’s nothing in my contract about that .
There were other things, earlier, that certain newspapers took issue with. Do you think that if you had strong views for Brexit, or strong policies against immigration, you would have gotten the same [reaction]? 12
12 A key moment for critical coverage of Lineker in right-leaning UK newspapers came in 2023, after he posted that the government’s asylum policy was “cruel” and its language “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s.”
Not a chance.
I told people I was voting to remain [in the EU, in 2016.] That was probably the first time I’d ever aired any kind of political views. Subsequently, it’s always been humanitarian issues. They say, Just stick to your football and stay out of politics . Well, there’s a lot of politics in football as well. You can’t have it all ways.
Your media business, Goalhanger, has got more and more successful . Is there anything that you see slightly differently now? Could you imagine having rules for your hosts that go any way towards what you had at the BBC?
Oh, no. We’re not cursed with that; the BBC are. People will always see bias, but generally the bias is their own. You can’t win.
I love the BBC. I think it’s still an amazing institution. It’s got issues and some of them are right at the top at the moment. If you want impartiality, it has to start at the top, and it’s not right there at the moment, I don’t believe. That’s my personal view. 13
13 A reference to political appointments to the BBC’s board, which I wrote about for the Forecast newsletter last year. We did ask the BBC to respond to Lineker’s view, but they declined to comment.
[At] Goalhanger, it’s completely up to [the hosts] what they talk about. We’ve got hosts that know their stuff and sometimes they’ll have strong views. They don’t have to be balanced all the time because I think it’s really important that it should be just the truth.
Obviously you don’t want to put out things that lead people astray — you’ve got to be careful with that, but we never, ever tell them what to say.
You are a media boss now.
I am, yeah, but I don’t feel like one.
It is a form of power and you are a very politically aware and engaged person. Do you relish it?
I don’t see it like that. I relish what we’re giving to people.
It’s interesting to think how full-circle it is. Goalhanger started in sports documentaries, then audio had incredible growth; but now all audio is visualized.
It’s going back again, but still the majority of our listeners are listeners.
Business-wise, it’s mad. We don’t really know what we’re doing, but we’ve blagged it.
What if podcasts end up eating news? Already, loads of people will form their worldview from The Rest is Politics . They might well be turning straight to opinion. It’s the creator economy. What happens if it destroys traditional journalism? 14
14 This may sound apocalyptic but I was thinking of a recent warning from former BBC News Chief Executive Deborah Turness, on how personality-led journalism on You Tube, TikTok and Substack is disrupting newsrooms.
Unlikely. Journalism will always be there. It might move slightly, but I think it’s hard to imagine. Lots of people get their news in different ways. A large percentage of people have not discovered podcasts yet — particularly the elderly like me. [ Laughs ]
I can’t let you go without asking you about England. It’s 60 years since, at a senior level, the men last won a major tournament.
60 years of hurt.
I’m keen to understand why you think that is — in a country where football is so alive; which has got one of the most successful domestic leagues in the world?
We won a World Cup in 1966 when it was in our own country — the only time it’s been here. That does give you an advantage.
Our development of young players was appalling up until probably 15 years ago. No one in the rest of the world could understand it — we used to play little kids of eight, nine, 10, 11 on full-sized pitches. We’ve never been tactically clever because we weren’t brought up the right way.
In recent years, we’ve been producing better players again and we can compete. But it’s worth pointing out: It’s very, very, very difficult to win a World Cup. There are a lot of great footballing nations. Last World Cup, I thought we were the better team against France, but we lost. In 1990, I thought we were the better team in the semifinal, and we lost on penalties. It’s tiny margins.
I’m not overly confident for this particular World Cup, but I fancy us in the Euros [UEFA European Football Championship] in two years’ time because it’s in the UK and Ireland — they will have half a chance.
Is there a link to domestic football: that playing for your country isn’t regarded by the clubs as that important; the players are not training with the national team to the extent they should be?
No, it’s not that. Players have a massive desire to play for their country — it’s the biggest honor you can get; they’re desperate to play. Do clubs like it? No. But they don’t like it in Italy, France, Spain, Argentina or Brazil. It’s something clubs have to do.
The one thing that is hard for us is that our league is incredibly competitive, still very physical and we play a lot of football — we don’t really help ourselves in terms of World Cups. I know a lot of players from around the world are in our league as well now, but it is tough for [England].
Your own experiences at the World Cup were life-changing, right? You wouldn’t have had your broadcasting career without being so prominent as a player for England.
No. You get those letters saying, How do I get into broadcasting ? I always say, Try local radio, local newspapers. Or score loads of goals for England.
1986 changed everything for me. We lost our opening game against Portugal. We drew against Morocco. We needed to win and one game changed my life — Poland, hat-trick . After that, two more [goals] against Paraguay, and the goal no one remembers in the “ Hand of God ” game. I won a Golden Boot and moved to Barcelona. That’s what World Cups can do.
I wonder who will be the Gary Lineker of this World Cup. There will be someone who might well have a similar life-changing experience.
Let’s hope he’s English. [ Laughs ]
Do you think you’ve got a lot more World Cups in you?
I just hope I’ve got a few more years in me. [ Laughs ] I use a footballing cliché. We’ll take one World Cup at a time. I just want to see us win one. That’s what I’ve always wanted. I was 5 years old when we won in 1966, and I have no memory of that — zero. So that would be nice. Hopefully there’s a bit of life in the old dog yet.