Even in his final show as Match of the Day host, that mug Gary Lineker couldn't avoid making a right cock-up. It was one he'd never made in his 26 years hosting the BBC's flagship programme.
The blunder
As the show drew to a close, a montage of Lineker's family, friends and colleagues paid tribute to the departing host in an emotional montage. The messages all became a bit too much for Lineker as he struggled to keep it together going into the next segment, which was the Premier League table.
In every previous episode, Lineker had read off a script on a piece of paper. But in his final episode, he couldn't find it and had to improvise.
As he choked back tears on live TV, Lineker said: "I don't know if I can speak. I'll try. For one last time, here's the Premier League table." A brief pause ensued as he scrambled to find the paper which contained the script, only for his efforts to prove fruitless.
"And I can't find the copy," Lineker said. "So I tell you what, you can just read it for yourselves because it doesn't matter." Lineker ran through the top of the table and those who qualified for Europe before he turned his attention to the bottom half.
Leicester's relegation
"Let's have a look at the bottom of the table - it's the first time I've ever ad-libbed this," Lineker said. "Ermm, the bottom three are going down as they do tend to do at the end of the season. One of those teams is, of course, Leicester which is not really how I wanted to finish."
Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, who joined Lineker as the pundits on the 64-year-old's final show, struggled to hold in their laughter as they watched the departing host stumble his way through the segment.
Lineker's explanation
Lineker then clarified why he had to ad-lib in the latest episode of The Rest Is Football podcast. "When they played the montage, I was struggling, especially when I saw my boys," Lineker said. "Thankfully, that wasn't the last clip because I'd gone at that point and needed time to get myself together to try and get through the end of the show.
"It's weird, isn't it? I presented it for 26 years and I always finish with the Premier League table and then a closing line. But for the first time ever, because of everything that was going on, I completely lost what we call the copy, the written form of what I read out over the tables.
"That's written by the subs and it needs to be accurate - you can't make any mistakes. For the first time in 26 years, I couldn't find it and it wasn't there, so I just bust which was a bit different."
Lineker's exit
Lineker's final show as Match of the Day host doubled as his final appearance for the BBC on their football coverage. It was always planned for Lineker to step down as Match of the Day host at the end of the 2024/25 campaign but he was due to stick around to present next season's FA Cup and the 2026 World Cup.
However, the 64-year-old's exit was brought forward after he shared a post which led to accusations of anti-semitism, which he quickly apologised for. Lineker will be replaced as Match of the Day host by Gabby Logan, Mark Chapman and Kelly Cates.
