Gary Lineker interview on football, refugees & politics | Unfiltered with James O’Brien #16

[Music] how old were you and when when you first kind of became recognized on the streets a lesser probably early twenties right yes so since that was the kind of slightly late developer footballer who are you yeah I wasn't you know I didn't really get into the first-team regular until I was about 21 22 and then it kind of spiraled from there but um so you mean recognizable since far too much so now presumably I mean you can't go anywhere in Britain without somebody having a word or saying something um usually nice always nice yes bizarrely despite in other areas people are generally very very very pleasant and yeah I guess I get noticed everywhere I go particularly outside of London probably more than than London because people are busy in London the cetera but um you know if I go outside of yeah it's a bit can be a bit it's far I don't mind it's fine I'm used to it it's so normal because it's been like that for over thirty years so it's I would probably notice it more if it was the other way around yes but I couldn't you know if I want a skateboard go broaden was it always football I mean was that was that because you mentioned being in your twenties these days you being marked at 12 or 13 we won the books at Leicester as a schoolboy yeah I was but about that age twelve thirteen so I was on the schoolboys I didn't really think I'd actually make it did you know you didn't know no I burning ambitious a massive amount that I've seen always had that drive and commitment and speed and stuff like that but I didn't inside me really it's unbelievably competitive transmits difficult and I I wasn't you know I wasn't picked for the county side I was tiny well I didn't grow until I was like 16 17 so that was sort of Airy sly await about nine stone and and the size was important in football in those days it still is in this country to lesser degree but still still there so it was yeah it was everything I did in the game kind of surprised me whether it was when I got in the Reiser I thought all this will fire me out and then I got in the first team and I was sitting around all my favorite players and I was thinking what am I doing here yeah genuinely and then but whatever level I'm Torri it's really weird that you say that because he Ian Lee was in a couple of weeks ago because it he's an old man and he just got out of the jungle and he talked about he talks about that in in in a slightly different way but that sense of always being about to be found out or something cause if you're gonna get the tap on the shoulder so alright son very fun yes your job but but but a but a raw sporting talent is very different from the world you're in now from the kind of world of broadcasting and yeah and again I mean I remember the first couple of years after off any footballer I knew what I wanted to do and again I had that ambition to try and do it well but for a couple of years there were so many I remember I did football focus from from about 96 and I so many times I was in the car driving homes thinking I'm never gonna be at it I'm never gonna crack this but then over a period of time you get comfortable with the environment and how it works and listening to talk back and their innings but there's no equivalent of scoring goals or is there did you ever get a moment where you wanted to equip terrorists to do give everyone a hug that's funny enough that's the one thing I've found it you can't replace there's nothing that that compares to the feeling of scoring an important goal or winning a massive game although it's never quite as good if you didn't score there's never been anything quite like doing TV replaces perhaps a little bit the adrenaline rush we still have the kind of team camaraderie even though it's a smaller team so there's that chore parents are in the under life answering a bit of fun and all that kind of thing but at that moment that's scoring a big goal in a World Cup game or something he said there's nothing nothing and I've had conversations with like Michael Owen now and cheer about this and they say the same thing they you know Mike was tried to get it in racing it doesn't quite exist but so the only thing that's came that that's come anywhere near close was Leicester winning the league was years ago that was probably the joyous experience because three of my lads support Lester I mean they'll grown up but they still but to live that with that through that experience with them the last kind of couple of months of the season where they kept playing on Sunday so I did my Saturday night job got home the boys always used to come round cook a bit of lunch watch Lester and they kept winning 1 nil because I'm one and it was just it was just and then I remembered just the four hours George one of them indeed supports mine you know I even he joined in the end it was incredible now that gives other people of flavor that that sense of disbelief and magic at the same time is a miracle yeah proved at the beginning of the next season there's about the planets aligning and stuff like that I mean just stay with football for a bit that kind of gave the lie to a lot of the negativity surrounding the modern game didn't it the fact that everything was up for sale and the fact that everything was over produced and over thought and over managed it was it was really like lightning striking but because it was a league title rather than a cup anyone can win a cup if the wind is blowing in the right direction but to do it week off the week of the week I know that it hasn't been sustained properly but it did I never going to know of course happened the following season was inevitable in my mind I think so oh it was like after the Lord may show that wood didn't quite matter so much for the players and manage you've tried something different that didn't work I blame the manager he leaves somebody else comes in all of a sudden the microscopes baton the player so they performed a bit better but know what what they did was just astonishing it was it was just wonderful and yes it did go against everything perhaps him and said the things that only the big clubs could win et cetera in the power but although it's always really been like that there's always been two dogs or three which at least now we've got a few even though perhaps the top six had massively separates at least is sick from yeah well yeah some leagues it's won some leagues it's - we've got few you mentioned Shearer and an O in both of whom like you have have quite I mean it's in a nice way a sensible demeanor you mentioned the magic and never quite being able to recap that the other players the ones who are less sensible I suppose most obviously Gascoigne they do sometimes seem to spend their lives searching for the hi again only there's a there's a there's a tragedy to that well I think it's difficult for a lot of former footballers obviously they get a lot of flawed it's when they play they get a lot of glory there in the public didn't mean anything they get lots of money relevant to a lot of other people and nowadays more so yes but it's not easy at the end of your career and some of us have found something else that we can do into television but there's only so many spots but sure the pundits or it's not many presenters but and there's only so many coaching jobs so therefore the vast majority of footballers that kind of getting a bit of a wilderness yes well they don't know what to do and and they all perhaps invest in some business that might go wrong and or I think the divorce rates for footballers from the age of something like 35 to 40 so the highest you know seventy percent unbelievable so then the hot you know then the money disappears a little bit the self worse can go down so that's you know people talk about Paul Gascoigne but you know and use a magical football II well that's why but he's got yeah but he's got kind when higher analyst has always had their clinical shoes and they're very addictive personality but even for lots of other players he wasn't and you also get accustomed to living in a certain way and spending a certain amount of money because most people you know the more you earning will you spend generally and then it plummets so it's a bit where I've been hugely fortunate to find something else that I could do that pays really well is and gives me a life that I enjoy and often think to myself you know you know wife I've been so lucky any genuine yes so serendipity long and that and that notion of being a lonely even keel as well which is nice you mentioned the money I have different is it now I compared to when you were in your pomp well I was one of the top played players in the world for what probably for half a dozen years yes and that would have meant about the salary perhaps someone like Alexis Sanchez we're now getting a week not that I'm complaining because I do fine but yes I've been on some just over three hundred grand a year and I think that's probably about what I've wanted to others in world football Confessor in inflation and real term comparisons but you're talking about a u-turn to the previous generation to you and and whatever generation they're in yes I can't wait to hear the current crop winching in fact he's only in pounds some players do don't know there you can see a few years also that you players get attacked yes how much they are yes but nobody ever seems to say anything about I mean yes you I can never say I'm not gonna try even trying to sit here and justify footballers salary or a broadcasters salary and but compared with people that do a real job yes we could it is what it is but nobody ever complains about kind of golfers or huge basketball stars or Formula One drivers or big actors that get zillions for a movie top musicians if you're in the top of the entertainment industry you get really well paid but it only seems to not only football is being finalized football is if they say get walloped for earning a few quid and but and then you've got the other side of it the big business people yes they are unfortunate of course they're way beyond anything that possibly a footballer can manage if they if they're successful enough so you know it's impossible to sit here and never try and justify it a big salad no of course but I wouldn't I wouldn't even try I've just been just lucky there's no right business it's not a very long list of people in any line of work you've ever turned around I said I think you might be pay me a bit too much there why don't you have some of it bad see if you can find someone else more deserving than I am um and like that of course sort of speaks to the to the security that you have as well and I wonder how I am a big a part that the security plays in you making the decision in recent years to sort of move out of your lane as the Americans say no and when non political people get involved in politics are often taught to stay in their Lane you've pretty much gone through the crash barrier in some context what do you think you don't know it no yeah but I mean I think for some people the fear of upsetting the Daily Mail or the Sun or seeing your employer in the case of the BBC put under pressure to get rid of you if you didn't know that you could pay all of your bills until they've got children and stuff but does that play a part at all or is that is that overthinking what is quite a few things no I died I think I've always said reasonable things I don't I didn't do them on my programs I know them on my personal social media whether it's about Twitter bylaws yes so and I just it started kind of when I did a little bit about FIFA I was quite strong on Blatter in particular which is not quite political issues but I was that was that when you first started offering up in my something I was on what's happened on a pitch quite probably yeah just about apart from other sporting things or one or two interests but now I think I have a kind self social conscience so I supported I felt sorry for the refugees and yeah that seemed to be some kind of crime that you you it's astonishing when you might get it because yeah imagine if it was London yeah and we were under its hair course and we had to flee and you have to try and get a boat across the channel and then members of your family would die on route and to go to the extremes to escape some kind of awful regime that you're it yes I just don't understand I mean it's a difficult to deal with and how many come in and who doesn't and what whether we should house refugees and said to look after them and there's always issues about that but I do not understand how you can not have a degree of sympathy for their incredibly awful plight and that was all I really did at the start and then I that didn't go down too well was just going back for about October 2016 roughly years ago yeah remark oh do you think that it's that recent now that you are kind of one of the people on the on the totem pole for the right-wing crest that they like to dance around on a regular basis but it didn't put you off that astonishing overreaction I'm not really bully able which is probably a weakness or a strength I don't know and that'd be true so lightly the more they have a go at me it's more likely for me to be more involved hmm but when it started because I never met you before I'm really interested in this when it starts because I do it for a living yeah so you you you were just being an ordinary bloke offering an ordinary opinion about extraordinary circumstances with no inkling at all that you were painting a target on your back no I didn't I didn't think I was painting any kind of time I did one or two tweets around you know around the same stage I couldn't really grasp how hateful some sides were and then they started perhaps having a go at me and I was on the front pages about how you can have these kind of views etc what I couldn't really comprehend I mean I've got people that have alternative views where something that whether it's refugees whether it's immigrants whether it's brexit etcetera etc but they'll have those views and we'll even discuss them and debate them but we don't start abusing each other it's the levels of abuse that came and probably not helped by our dad newspapers um cuz kind of fostering this kind of hatred towards individuals so I and it went from there but I can't really understand these yeah you can have different opinions loads of people got different opinions and things you can you think Breck's it's a great thing alright let's discuss it yeah but it doesn't mean to say I'm not gonna like that person no but isn't any less I might not like his views very much but it doesn't mean some we're gonna dislike that person I would have thought football would prepare you for this better than almost anything else in the world probably cuz yeah we'd get dogs abuse from staining you inle despised in the blink of an eye if you sign a contract with an ePub and leave the old club you go from being on people's bedroom wall to being turned into an effigy and burn on bonfire night yeah so it's good training because you see for nine it's big thing about football is for a lot of people it's the most important thing in their life yes for a lot of people in genuine ears you either get that a hundred percent or you don't get it at all do you it's hard to explain it to someone who goes to the occasional game or someone who enjoys watching on the telly I always think of cause on the telly when the corners when the camera comes in on a corner and a player who is at the wrong end the expressions on these people's faces are feral boy you say them up yes I've seen them looking at me like so that gives you thick skin turns you into a bit of a rhinoceros it can do or the or if you can't cope with as a footballer did it can yes have a real weakening effect on your career debilitating effects to be able to deal with that yes so I'm a killer mr. arias fan so I don't really spend that much time with people for whom football is the single most important thing in their life and in many ways it's just as well in many ways it's it's healthier because you're never gonna come out of a grow worried that someone's gonna smash a bottle over your head or take a swing at you and the same obviously goes for the players would you would you remember when you were first exposed to the ugliness of it because well in my time much uglier yes I remember we had hooliganism here the racism from the terraces was was diabolical I mean I remember been on you know playing on the pitch and bananas being thrown on in games when they were back players playing I remember being on the plane with England we used to go on a plane but we have there was punters on the back I remember a few punches coming down and having a go at John bond saying you shouldn't be allowed to wear oh yeah serious I mean thankfully it's come a long way since that now I think I think in many ways I know there is still issues and there's still racism around and still race them in football around but in terms of I think footballs kind of guiding light in many ways you know in the football community you see you're a part of a team you sit in a dressing room you don't look round you're at your teammates and thing he's black he's yellow he's this any more than you do in your office or your place all your factors none of that it's you look around you go Molly's good player you can cross it he can defer any worse he's yeah so it's like that I need to come on and come on and come on and even on you know you don't get yeah I don't hear or see those the chance in this country still anything like it was in in the mid eighties when it was it was abhorrent it was interesting wasn't it to read about civil regis um yeah I've lost away recently because he was really pretty much the first focus of this kind of thing wasn't he was a trailblazer anyway and he handled it all with such dignity and that's I think that's important as well and people have a go if you can if you can can't make almost get the moral high ground in in a way by not losing it and he was very even-tempered and the articulate and along with his teammates at that time at West Brom I love this right there I love the idea of because what you're describing really is is managing to retain your faith in human nature despite all the evidence you personally get of how vile it can be I never would have thought of football as being a great leveler a great teacher of how things can improve and how things can change no it's it's an it's an interest angle I suppose but because we've been through it so much of tools and but I think we've come a long way in football I mean we sit in other countries there's you know raised much more racism from it's almost like it was here 30 years ago but it's I think we've we've improved a lot there's still a way to go and there's still isolated incidents that's sure that we'll get within our game but by and large it's it's improved both on the pigeon and off the pitch I mean obviously we've got to get more because we we've got such a cross-section of people from different countries etc here and different colours we've not quite got that into the management side of the game you know certainly in a plane and equally if you were to exchange black skin for the Muslim faith you've still got a massive disconnect between the fans I'm an anorak like this so I actually the last was it I could get to Arsenal Chelsea last FA Cup final what was it it was yeah so I went on Wikipedia to work out how many of the players with Muslims and I put together an eleven and if you included the subs and a couple of people over injured there's 11 people on Associated both of you were both Muslims and yet still we live in a country where that that kind of notion of integration is completely ignored football is actually in many ways it shows paving the way what we really are yes we're all human beings I imagine a broad and foreign countries famously were at Barcelona um it's less common now for English players to go and play oh yeah I think there's a reason for that go on de I think we're English players are generally reluctant to move we're all quite happy with live in our little island here don't we and we're all quite homely and and it was the same in my day but in my day it paid so much better anywhere else it was triple quadruple you do your salary by playing either in Spain for one of the big boys or Italy yes so there were quite a few players in those days would go there well kings remember mark Haley Liam Brady Kevin Keegan went to Germany Tony Woodcock there were you know if you went to to Spain so you know it was also no job for me it was a wonderful experience to go to a place like Barcelona and who turns that down but and a chance to learn another language and things like that but by and large there were quite a few players that just went well a few quid couple years get back home yes whereas now they don't have to go anywhere if they want I'd like to see what the world's calling well everyone that the salaries here are so high they're as high as they are well there's all the exceptions of Ronaldo people like that the salaries here is very competitive so therefore when we're getting an influx of top players not just staying here but also an influx coming so there's an inkling there wasn't there which would none of us would have noticed at the time of the the linic of the social justice warrior who was two decades further down the tracks because when you went to Barcelona you you tried to really embrace Spanish culture there was none of that kind of living in a get in in it in a footballer's ghetto you learnt the language you put down roots in the country or tried to yeah there were no football in ghettos in those days nothing but big walls houses and stuff like that but um but yeah I deliberately avoided the expat society because I just thought this is a unique opportunity to learn a language where did that come from go because I've got I've got this image of you on your dad's market stall in Leicester while on the books at lest there is a schoolboy I don't I don't know enough about you to to say with any certainty but presumably if you're on the books of a club you're not going to hit the real books at school quite as hard as you would otherwise right I didn't probably no you're right though I didn't you know looking back now if I was advising the young me yes I'd have said you know you've got a degree I'm telling you should go work harder I mean I've got past the 11 plus I got to grammar school and all that but then football and cricket took over and that was sport was good will you at cricket I was I thought I'd add more chance at cricket than football I'm a prostitute you made the countess's krickstein and I got my football opportunity came alive I played the County Schools a few years ago so yeah I thought I had a chance at that more than football but the footballs opportunity came along first and then cricket took a back seat so your brain was was big and active but didn't have a lot to chew on is that fair like you know I used enjoy writing to write match reports yes when I decide this interests formal stuff it's a journalist screaming together all alone that's what what I wanted to do if I didn't make it right I wanted I would have been a sports journalist yes which I'm sorry I suspect is the reason most sports journalists end up being sports journalist players probably green card doing right so there was that engagement with the world around you the desire to actually understand things because that is I guess the difference between the the instinctive player and the player who could also write a match report at the end of the game is you want to understand you want to unpick it you want to dismantle it and work out how it all fits together like very much so really I used to I mean I don't I wasn't particularly gifted as a as a as a footballer I mean I didn't have a brilliant touch I couldn't dribble past you now well am I you know the only way I could ever beat anyone was think I was very quick yes I was quick in my mind so I yes and I used to think about the game and I worked out how to score goals I and and the other thing that I was I was given was a very very cool hair dye very even second card never got nervous never got angry yeah never tackled anyway so yeah so I was given those things but I didn't have you know any kind of brilliant technique or I had to work really hard at my torch and stuff like that and your coach is probably why I was at more of a late developing right yes game was more about Thornton yes like building blocks that you were putting together knowing that what would work and what wouldn't from watching other players and from working out where you weigh so you would never have described yourself as an instinctive no not not similar I was most of my goals when I was young with balls over the tops I was really quick just outrunning people and one on ones the goalkeeper which was always I quite enjoyed and but not being three players and curling in the top corner I never did that my life this this might sound like a rude question but it's linked to what we're talking about with regard to school and and and the study um did you read a lot of books when you were young did you yeah you did okay then it's not a rose then it's not a rude question to see this thoughtfulness going on challenged on unchecked so so that puts you on a slightly different metaphorical Buster ball is James this book yes of course yeah - I would take the mother of all kickings for the besties to read a national newspaper UK you kept your ins card you it was unfair that portrayal of footballers is big yeah this is a cross-section of a society you know some of them are some of them are daft some of them have drink problems yes some of them are very intelligent some of them will read a lot some of them won't read at all they'll have all sort there just a cross-section of working-class lads that have come up and then quite well some of them can handle that some of them cars yeah so we are um did you I knew your lads to go into the game or did they were all keen I went I used to watch them and support them the middle two were quite good Harry Bertie never really loved it enough and Tobias was on one third was on Chelsea's books was Academy for a couple years but he had that was good status and the condition thing even both needs out for two and half years but I think by his own admission he probably wouldn't have been quite good enough anyway buddy yeah and you've got to be it has to be really good and I think to be the son of a tough player you've got be even better cause good please so what do you get oh I mean I remember George who buy his own well him by himself he was not the best player I remember and he always when he was very tiny you say I want to be a football I want to feel football and and I used to watch him anything and then it weighs about 11 or 12 1 knives putting him to bed and he said daddy sit up I don't think I'm gonna be good enough to be a footballer I just didn't know well you know it's gonna be difficult but I used to stand on the touchline don't get started on this or on with parents and watching for the kids play football they live in their lives through the children they are they're so desperate for them to make it to it's it's it's having the opposite effect completely opposite in fact they put instill fear into the grades this gets better do it's ridiculous I just get better parents conce amazed at all I thought I thought he might be might be better yeah better than he is and I said well we see you know why well you know you with yes well his mother was wrong I've done watch for my nine-year-old it sports a couple of years ago she was nine another dad was showing they just wish we could bring in this thing where parents were said nothing yes nothing apart from applause yeah it's not gonna make much difference or well make a lot of difference no I mean yes exactly you're not gonna have a negative impact I've been quiet spent yeah therefore boys listen what's the standing on search somewhere I never ever shouted anything ever listening to big people give the worst possible advice to their own children and other children in the team shouting complete nonsense 99.9% at the time yes um does it clearly you genuinely do rise above all of the flack that's directed out you for sticking your head above the parapet what about when your personal life gets into the papers that must be harder to pay yeah it's difficult there are special I mean though when they write on truths yes I'm powerless often I've only recently discovered things written but I'll tell you what sir you'll get used to this what's wrong good things about he exactly eventually one of the good things about social media though it gives you a right of reply yes would you never used to have that I mean I've seen stories about myself and other people that I know that completely wrong yes completely made-up nonsense I mean it takes six months to any shiny vehicle you had available to you is trying to so and now it took such a long or arduous process that was dragged out deliberately to put you off ever doing it and it was dangerously expenses if he didn't win dangerously expensive whereas at least on Twitter now you see something that's wrong hmm that's actually a false story about you you can go straight away to especially if you've got big following which perhaps more than will read the paper in two versions it becomes very trees wrong yes yeah and people will then help you side with you and it gets out there and it reaches so many more people than than ten years ago no right of reply at all ten years ago was going you had no chat standing on a street corner with a loudhailer be your only real cm McFarlane yesterday picture of the front page exactly that completely fabricated nonsense when follows in the star has read yes it right in the power there's a changing the parent and that's what they don't like and that's why they tend to try and perhaps have a go on your thoughts or a little concern yes if especially if if we don't agree with them yes now I'm fascinated by this I got my first because obviously I'd you know if you were here I'm somewhere down there I got turned over properly by did you see and its might was Twitter it wasn't even the radio show it's hurtful isn't it I mean I don't care who you are no it's hopefully in a way yeah I mean there's also that bit like you that goes all right then do something right but of course you'd rather everybody liked you you don't want to be the person that and I trying to unravel that this what you just said there about they don't like anybody having a view that challenges the thing they're selling no it's I mean it's fine I'll have their views do what they want of course but don't go personal personal attacks just because you don't like what someone thinks I don't that's why I can't comprehend ya know that so he has a different view to you so that's what the world's about will have different views on all sorts of different things yes but it doesn't mean say you've got to be revengeful and try and attack them personally it's that's the modus operandi become worse than it's ever been I think with Bexar and trump it's almost well I think we're in a I think we're in a moment it's almost the watershed moment the thing to either be watershed moment for good and continue going down this slippery slope I love how that would end yeah it's quite chilling um you and Lily Allen probably the who's done unfiltered already it's like crossing the streams for the edits for the mail that have to have you to uh if there ever did you find it I mean you're all of a sudden you yeah I've gone from those might have former newspaper journalist I wasn't very good at it but um I mean I'm buying very pro newspapers any sure I just we don't understand this new breed this new strain I was freaked out by it actually a lot of great things yeah I think sometimes the other side of it lets the real journalists down of course it blends but they're not brave enough to stand up against it because they'd either I'd use the word brave because because oh well you have to be really brave to stand up to your own and you'd have to not be able to pay your bills next month you have to be really brave I see what you mean Oh Matt or what here but so I get how difficult it can be from I mean I'll get direct messages from from Jeff yeah I'm sure freelance would never name them because it won't be good to say when we're absolutely on your side I'm really sorry it's difficult you know standing a embankment station minding my own business but it comes off a stands next to me goes alright James it's like something out of Smiley's bit happens to be occasionally not like it does the I just want to say I'm great what you're doing with regard to the mayor at the moment why are you whispering it I'm a senior but they're decent normal people and yet there's this doing a job that I mean I'm sure they disappointing on occasion of course actually that's that's the thing I'm getting from you which is quite reassuring to me the baffle knows where does it leave what's the point is a unless there is just one size fits all one flavor of ice cream foot foot for the whole country have you ever had because if we take October 2016 as the kickoff point with the post FIFA comments when you start tweeting about refugees in what you've described very clearly as an utterly unremarkable response to a human tragedy have you ever thought I might why my neck in for a bit now or I might just take that fourth I'm not gonna hang up my I don't overdo it no as well I know I think it's trying to find I think if I'm really really upset about something or I feel it's worthy of comment and I'll then I'll do it and I've never deliberately thought actually maybe I shouldn't no mention anything political environment I mean I don't really put out there my political no you don't area humanitarian views rather than political I mean obviously there are things that you see that the government might do feel strongly about but you know I've never sided with one party in particular or the other I've never said who I vote for but it's it's for me humanitarian issues are important and obviously I don't agree with brexit I get that a lot of people do fine I just can't yet see anything that will be good about it [Laughter] again like you I'm waiting for the overdose someone comes along as a zero maybe hope okay I fear that it's the children you worry all right but we're kind of leaving this locker good yeah genuinely good yeah not poor no no nothing's perfect when it's you know the political world it's definitely very little especial times but you know it's kind of worked in its own way for a long time we've had peace for a long time whereas who knows I to that we used to have wars with a couple of okay just chunk out the Germans have a crack at the French vice versa Spanish it's interesting you say that because I don't think apology political is the right word to describe I prefer humanitarian and I like wouldn't put money on how you do vote because presumably you can compare what do they say is sort of I presumably don't want a top tax rate of 95 percent like we had there are the things I agree with on both sides okay yes and there are things I disagree with on both sides rageous you need to be more like a football fan yeah though you these yes that's almost like it is it to say something negative say about the Tory Party on occasion yeah as you love Jeremy called me it means you love Jeremy Corbyn and if you say if you criticize Jeremy Corbyn you love my that's nice pushing it but my dad did yes so it's you know you soon as you put your head a little bit it's a family business you're in the Thatcher's I know that's right you're bad probably so you say you should have been Prime Minister be prouder of um it's interesting actually because you were in Liverpool in the mid eighties Everton for one season I know but that dressing room must have been one of the most political football dressing rooms Hatton was always hanging around me yes still is Neville Southall is giving you a run for your money on social media as a moment he's actually dev was pretty close to across to me mother Teresa and yeah it was it was a big political environment Everts in that season that dressing room or is this my theory go slowly shot down in flames by some of there was actually there that's good that's fine no change I've changed a lot different things you do you think about different things as you get older and you perhaps worrying a little bit more about things you should get older as well and you you think more deeply about certain areas that we've done and we've all done that and but it was a good dressing room yeah team I played for sure how do you mean it was the best team well in terms of how everything slotted together yeah idea I was in idea word up them a bit longer but yeah Barcelona came knocking the club except the bed so I'm sorry and you have no say in there at all no I didn't have to go right but when a club comes to so I've accepted a bear do you think oh well I'm not really that wanted and he was like that in those days he's different now he said the player has much more power yes but it wasn't you know it wasn't via route via reals no it was it was Barcelona so it wasn't terrible was that with end I think you may have answered this question of all the club's he played for the first time you ran out onto the pitch in a home game but was Barcelona the one that made you feel my boss those huge so he after know many magical Kurds it was 120,000 about that and Ernie do you just come out of the tunnel which the the level of the pitch is actually it's a lot lower than the outside at the ground so when you come up yeah different here below the pit below this actual ground leveled off and then you you go out the tunnel on themselves I mean to the pitch and it was oh my god it just goes really close to the pitchers just great or are you entirely kind of DIY because like a magpie you just look around you know I agree with this thing that thing then things I don't like and yes I've done you know I've never been kind of help me not found it quite difficult to vote for never the last couple of lectures gonna be even harder I know it's a lot of homeless political but yeah politically I felt like that for some time would it then would it have been brave of you to refuse to do the FIFA draw the other way the other Bay because you've been so outspoken critic of yeah yeah yeah that's change I'm happy to explain why I did it I contact a lot of debate new people with and it would an over a period of time they convinced me that they really really do want to change it now hopefully they don't let me down there's more in football as involved I was being too van Basten who's involved now Figo they're an in particular boban right who's tightly Secretary Shirl or something but he's very high up on the ladder and boban in particularly is hugely impressive he loves football and he's desperate to change things for the good now do you just stay outside when somebody to approach you like that or do you try and get inside and influence them and change things for the good because I care about football and that's why I did that's that's exactly why I did it I have meetings out there I spent hours with with the president I spent hours with boban and um I remember sitting them in restaurants and this is your opportunity that you can have a real legacy for good in football you can make change it's really not easy really not easy for them because they come in and they you know they can be hoofed out instead of all yeah but you know I I plead my case with them and for me to have that opportunity to do I think was was important I didn't do it for money I've given the whole gave the whole fee to the British Red Cross it wasn't interested it wasn't a money thankful and also it was so you were saying your support to the new regime in a way saying I was trying to influence the new race yes I'm not I'm not supporting them yet until they prove to me okay and and football that they genuinely will do what they say they will do now and I have a lot of trust particularly boban and the football people that are involved and hopefully they'll make a difference but you know they deserve a little bit of a push a little bit of support along the way cuz the person I battered and battered and battered was bratter yes and Ernie's cronies and that old God and pretty much all of them now are either suspended in jail pending arrest etcetera etcetera they've all that nearly all gone by the handful and yes there is still issues that need resolving but some of them need time and so what would have been achieved by you not doing it is pertinent as well isn't it because it wouldn't matter if I could could have made it slow and you said well I was asked but it was how did he get so rotten I mean sort of someone a lot closer to it for most of your life how did he get so rotten so it made me feel sick a lot there are the levels of corruption and even some of the things that they they told me which I can't say how bad the previous regime yes they're trying to do to change it and how the the expenditure massively going down and I you know it's not being naive and don't know I don't know but you know that's all thing you can piss outside the tent yeah it's true um and and the reaction then which I what hadn't been aware to like that I just did a little bit of swatting up before us who are you the this of course is the same Linacre who has been one of FIFA's most visceral it's the same these three years ago said FIFA's nauseating corruption made him feel sick advisor I still say yes no and I genuinely mend that and but we have got a new garden and and hopefully they will be considerably better and infantino proved that but I'm you know I'm not I think it would be difficult for them but I think they've already made massive changes with it and the scrutiny has not the scrutinized they want to make the the elections for the next World Cup bids totally open so that everyone can see who's bidding for everyone so that's a star I automatically it takes away the obvious you know bribery things a little bit yes and it does read like something Mario Puzo might have written doesn't it some of the star means he'll know more than the rest of us do but it is it's almost as if dream up any example of corruption and then double it and it happened it's beyond belief yes it was truly awful but you know they needed an new broom yeah it needed to you know just get rid of the old guard and bring someone else in and let's hope these new people that won you know part of this before let's hope they're much better I sense they are especially with boban Bert's we watch this space watch this space and and if they don't let ball game down I'll be back on their case no kidding yeah well that's a lovely thing isn't it that's a lovely thing about what you have become sort of almost by accident is that now you do actually have credibility in the in the sense of these will know that you'll be telling the truth next time you if you do decide that you need not have a bit of weight in the game that has been so good to me over did you ever fancy going down that route English players do it very often I don't think many players do it no not many I mean a flirtini most obvious city exactly covering something yeah yeah of course I mean I knew Michelle used a wonderful football it was quite you know effervescent guy you could see I'd done well B he let himself down you let the game down no football is down no glory in the backroom job neither is that I don't mean glory in a negative sense I mean it in that magical whirling of yes I suppose this power yes because I've known as we've never had any kind of feeling having wanted to have any kind of power so I never you know I also don't like playing that let's be nice to everyone political thing that everyone has to do exam yeah you are mr. nice who is the last person you were horrible to serious question Oh will mean try not to be mean yeah but you must be sometimes you know put a few way my own style on Twitter yes this is sure and I've had a popper a few so I've been a mean to people died perhaps this is a really really really deserved how do you do you ration it yourself because you could it's easy to get into a vortex isn't it especially when you could see so much poison yeah as you are you just get a bit of poison on there but yeah most of the time I ignore it rise above it I don't look too much of the notification no occasionally I'll see one or two things um so so occasionally I love a little little bite it is a cesspit and it is um in place haters out spite briefly before we started recording so I got a comment whether we said this on or off okay but there was that sense that social media has become like a football crowd that sense that it is now yeah it was before it was so good was to again it was it's open season the way that you can attack a public figure in particular or even a non public figure it would only at one point I've been football is there ever and probably black footballers they ever got exposed to that kind of well we all got the hatred as football I certainly I mean you still see it now on the terrace hatred at the faces and stuff you never really received that person until perhaps social media came along and then all of a sudden the people with the the venneman anger inside them they vent and they and they can do it directly to you here so it's incredible so it's kind of weird especially since I've come out term in terms of you know showing a social conscience humanitarianism we call it whatever you like I've had probably more love than I've ever heard but I've also had way more hate that have even noticed before hooks and again I never ever get that in the street I they never have the kind of I don't know whether the bravery or the to come up to and give you so you I don't like your views or whatever never get that no it's getting chair inside bullets a bit you'd like to think they would be too ashamed and embarrassed rather than it necessarily being and I think actually most of them if you actually been and they did say what they said energy you talk them out of it you go actually often come on I did this thing come on off yeah I mean you do you don't I've done it with people who've texted in yeah not not intending to speak to me I've given a ring in the commercial power do you really mean there you want my wife to get cancer she talk this through me you don't know yeah I'm not encouraged to do it but but um but but the numbers there so and and you're right they do often when you just hold up the mirror they see what they look like and they just call Christ sorry I didn't mean I was just a bit of fun and they don't really think I mean I don't think most people most people are good they have to be most people are going after but what you get them the ones that want to engage on Twitter though they're the ones the few that are angry yes yeah where is most people go that's funny or that's quite me I agree with him or I don't agree with him I don't know I think 99% of people like that but you notice it because it's the 1% of course it's the soundest you know the loudest it's their chance to and they're that and you also noticed the one that's really nasty you don't notice the really nice things that's just human nature again like you said before we all want everyone to like a little bit of a sociopath in which case I know at the Daily Mail that carrot so everybody's thanks here do you worry about your children growing up in this kind of environment albums in my life worrying about children different ages different concerns as they you know as the roles progress and then when they get to adulthood and you you know afford a house what job they're gonna do all that kind of thing and why is their future in them and I mean the world's a little bit in flux yeah it's good I thought you would have thought if football didn't work and whatever job you ended up doing that you like your dad would have done it right up until retirement yeah it would have been roaming you but you would have progressed within a structure and you'd had done well but you wouldn't have run the risk of hitting 40 and and having to start all over again it's it's a very different economic world it's it really is in all sorts and you know and the safety of the world at the moment so you know so many places around the world that are in turmoil we're numb when George was poorly when it went George had leukemia from which he made a full and frank recovery did you come out of that experience changed do you think or almost no I think I always had a sense of perspective and realized you know I suppose I've always had a you know charmed life in this so it was so you started to wonder but it has to have effect on you something like that I mean it was it was an unbelievably traumatic few months I mean two or three times they told he eat very unlikely make it through the night really and living that was they brutal so it has to have some kind of effect on you for sure what that was I mean people say oh did it give you a big more perspective well I always had some degree of perspective but it's gonna enhance that internality why is important in life is it important that you score two goals at the weekend well of course it is but it's not as important as me as son lives or dies I mean you'd be I mean how anyone couldn't understand that oh but yeah I suppose it did in many ways but yeah there's a little miracle in many ways George very close on you - yeah it's lovely they're great they're good fun now enjoy your company yeah well they were embarrassed to be Gary Lineker sons I think parents always embarrass that you're not a normal parent mate so young boys footy this where I sat down breakfast told the story a few times Drago's was that when George was about ten eleven he's in Manchester United found he used to love daily betting when I was reading the paper and there's a big picture of Beckham on it and he just he just said God wouldn't it be great to have David Beckham he's really good they were they were a conscious of you as a player though weren't they they were did mean he was still playing when not quite just I was that's quite a stare to ask rule I don't mean the line is cruel the line is brilliant but it would be nice for them to be able to sort of just have a sniff of your heyday from the inside rather the restaurant actually with I was having dinner with George and David Beckham came in with Victoria like two weeks ago first I'd Swain so much fun does told David the story I love it love it this is a genuine question actually and it could go almost anywhere do you have any ambitions and I'm gonna rent the word left Gary do you have any ambitions left I want to be Prime Minister ambitions left move could you see a complete lane change again could you see yourself doing something completely I've found a couple of lane changes I know more than most yeah although always with the footballing flavor yeah exactly I mean the one thing I've done in recent in the last couple two three years is starting my own production company with my friend Tony yeah we've got a lifetime in TV I mean he runs it my so and I'm quite involved and do as much as I can and stuff so that's quite that's been quite fun be nice to build that up and hopefully you know be able to employ a few people etc and you have kind of how long do you think I mean I think a lot of it can throw a couple I told her she was never gonna die I don't know cancer are overdone honestly so there he thought about it for ages he thought about it for so long I was gonna give him an odd job serious thought and just Kimmy couldn't conceive of passing away but I didn't mean that I meant no I mean how long does Jo know much that they kept going Jimmy I love what I do clearly never bought no I love football I love watching the big games I love broadcasting football so um you know until I've I've certainly got no designs on retirement the moment I get bored and know no intention of stepping back not yet not yet I'm sorry everyone it's stuck with me for a bit I'm glad to hear it Gary that was real a real pleasure thank you guys good to me likewise finally [Music] you

Channel: JOE

Views: 90,456

Rating: 3.9737303 out of 5

Keywords: JOE, JOE.co.uk, JOEcouk, Gary Lineker, Match of the Day, Leicester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Humanitarianism, Politics, Interview, Everton, Barcelona, BBC, Football, Gary Lineker Interview

Id: if3KI4u5uqw

Length: 56min 31sec (3391 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 30 2018