BBC will not fund Alan Shearer and Micah Richards’ World Cup podcast costs

It is understood flights, accommodation and other expenses related to Shearer and Richards’ work for the podcast will be kept entirely separate from costs connected to their work for the BBC.

The BBC will not pick up the tab for any of the work done by Micah Richards, centre, or Alan Shearer, right, related to The Rest Is Football podcast during the World Cup. Pic: Handout from Netflix/PA

Licence fee payers in the UK will not shoulder any of the cost linked to BBC pundits Alan Shearer and Micah Richards’ work on The Rest Is Football podcast during this summer’s World Cup, the Press Association understands.

The podcast will be aired on Netflix this summer in video form after the streaming giant struck a deal with Goalhanger Podcasts, a company co-founded by former BBC presenter Gary Lineker, in December.