Gary Lineker nicked my job at the BBC and we haven't spoken in 20 years
Steve Rider has been left unimpressed by Lineker's career with the Beeb which came to an end earlier this year
Steve Rider has acknowledged that he hasn't spoken to Gary Lineker for a long time and harbours resentment over being replaced by the ex-Match of the Day host for BBC golf coverage.
Rider, who's embarking on retirement after 45 years in national television, including recent work on ITV4's British Touring Car Championship, has been an iconic figure in sports broadcasting. His extensive career includes coverage of major events such as Olympic Games, Rugby World Cup, F ormula One - notably Ayrton Senna's tragic accident at Imola - and the Champions League working with both ITV and BBC.
Beginning his career at ITV, Rider switched to the BBC where he served nearly two decades before heading back to ITV in 2005. While at the BBC, Rider was the principal golf presenter, covering prestigious tournaments like the Ryder Cup, the Open and the Masters.
His departure saw a surprising choice in former England footballer Lineker to become the new face of BBC golf, which disappointed Rider substantially.
It wasn't until 2015, following Lineker's controversial comments labelling the RandA 'pompous' and suggesting they saw themselves as 'superior beings', that Rider decided to publicly voice his opinions, reports the Mirror.
Speaking to the Golf Paper, Rider gave his blunt assessment: "I hold Gary Lineker in the highest regard as a football presenter, but his reflections on his experiences as a golf presenter need a huge reality check.
"For four years, the RandA and most other observers knew that Gary was the wrong man in the wrong job. Hazel Irvine has just delivered once again at the Open presentation skills of the highest quality. Not many people can do that and Gary certainly came up short.
"Roger Mosey, the head of sport, knew Gary was a golf fanatic and was further encouraged by Gary apparently volunteering for the Masters vacancy within a few minutes of my exit from Television Centre.
"But if Mosey thought long and hard before offering Gary the golf job, it's even more baffling. Match of the Day is scripted and rehearsed. Golf presentation, especially at Augusta, is seat of the pants, unpredictable and demanding."
Rider hasn't spoken to Lineker since then, as reported by The Telegraph. Now the 75 year old has given his opinion on Lineker's recent departure from the BBC.
Lineker hosted his last Match of the Day programme last month.
He was anticipated to leave next year, after the World Cup, but his exit was pushed forward following an Instagram post criticising Zionism, accompanied by an image of a rat. Lineker has claimed he wasn't aware of the historical context of rats being used to portray Jews in anti-Semitic imagery.
"To put forward his opinions so energetically, you need to step outside the framework of the BBC," Rider asserts. "That message was never convincingly conveyed to him by the BBC, and that's where they are at fault. He needed people looking after him before he pressed the button on some fairly volatile retweets.
"He needed to be saved from himself. So, there was a kind of inevitability about it."
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