Colin Sheridan: Gary Lineker may have won the battle but faces a war

The Match of the Day pundit will be a target after his victory over BBC chiefs.

POLITICAL FOOTBALL: Gary Lineker arrives at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester to present live coverage of the FA Cup quarter-final between Manchester City and Burnley. Picture: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

On a week when the tube did not run in London for three straight days due to industrial action, when former Prime Minister Boris Johnson once again nominated Daily Mail chief Paul Dacre for a Lordship, and when the number of migrants recorded dead or missing since 2014 in the Mediterranean reached 26,148, all eyes turned to Manchester on Saturday evening, where Gary Lineker made his return to the BBC’s football coverage for the FA Cup quarter final between Man City and Burnley. How apt it was that it took place at the Etihad Stadium, a colosseum that, by its very existence, stands as absurd evidence that sports and politics are not just inseparable, but forever entangled like Japanese knotweed.

Lineker, whose eternal glow was betrayed only by an obvious head-cold, typically chose not to gloat in his intro, instead offering a simple “It’s great to be here” before doing the one thing he rarely did as a player, passing to a fellow striker in Alan Shearer. The Geordie, a little clumsily, offered a statement of clarification, support and solidarity with viewers and co-workers all of whom, he acknowledged, had been put in “an impossible situation” by events of the previous weekend. With that, like one uncomfortable handshake at an Irish funeral, the elephant in the room disappeared quicker than Burnley's chances of causing a cup upset. Gary Lineker was back at the BBC.