<\/p>
Gary Lineker might be the face of football punditry, but when it comes to the Women\u2019s Euro 2022 competition, he\u2019ll just be watching.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Radio Times magazine ahead of the launch of the tournament, the pundit reflects on how far the sport has come and how pleased he is to have Alex Scott on the team.<\/p>\n
Read on for the full Q&A with Lineker.<\/p>
Why do you think the women\u2019s game has exploded in recent years?<\/strong><\/p>\n Partly because it\u2019s being televised more widely, but also because it\u2019s improved dramatically; watch a game now and you\u2019ll see moments of really good football and some terrific goals. I saw [Australian striker] Sam Kerr score a couple of extraordinary goals for Chelsea recently. The standard of the women\u2019s game is becoming really high, like in tennis and golf.<\/p>\n Will these championships further boost the popularity of the women\u2019s game?<\/strong><\/p>\n Without a doubt. Think of all the kids \u2013 boys as well as girls \u2013 who will start playing as a result of an exciting tournament like this, who one day might become England players themselves.<\/p>\n Your Match of the Day colleague Ian Wright is a pundit on the BBC team, alongside the likes of Alex Scott, Fara Williams, Gail Redmond and Kelly Smith \u2014 were you tempted to join them?<\/strong><\/p>\n I think the women\u2019s game is brilliant and I\u2019ll definitely be watching the Euros, but I\u2019m not an expert on the women\u2019s game. My focus is very much on the Premier League and international football. As a bloke who has either played or talked about football all his life, it\u2019s fantastic that more people are engaged in the sport I love. When I was playing in the \u201980s and \u201990s, you rarely saw a woman\u2019s face in the crowd at a match. That\u2019s changed now, thank goodness.<\/p>\n Should women\u2019s football be compared to the men\u2019s?<\/strong><\/p>\n Of course not. It\u2019s the same with rugby and any high-powered physical sport. It\u2019s never going to be as dynamic, technical and powerful \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t mean to say it\u2019s not going to be watchable, nor does it mean that the skill levels aren\u2019t really high. But as much as I think it would be disingenuous to pretend it\u2019s at the same level as the men\u2019s league game, it doesn\u2019t matter. Sport is about playing at the highest level you can play and women\u2019s football is still football \u2013 and if you reach the very top, you deserve accolades.<\/p>\n In 2018, Olympique Lyonnais and Norway striker Ada Hegerberg became the first woman to be awarded the Ballon d\u2019Or F\u00e9minin, but the moment was marred when the male presenter asked whether she knew how to twerk.<\/strong><\/p>\n That was just embarrassing\u2026 patronising sexist nonsense that is hopefully a thing of the past now, and which just shows you how quickly the women\u2019s game has grown. Sam Kerr recently won the PFA player of the year award alongside Mo Salah \u2013 women weren\u2019t recognised for that prestigious award when I played.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve worked with Alex Scott on BBC coverage of the men\u2019s game. Was she a welcome addition to the team?<\/strong><\/p>\n Absolutely! I worked with Alex when she was a pundit \u2013 she now presents \u2013 and she did her homework, which is important, but she also played at a high level all her life and really knows the game. The overall level of women\u2019s punditry is good and improving; it\u2019s been a welcome decision. But it\u2019s difficult because on Match of the Day we generally only have players who\u2019ve played in the Premier League. Given the popularity of women\u2019s football in this country now, it\u2019s only a matter of time before female presenters will be regular pundits on men\u2019s football, too. But for Euro 2022, it makes more sense for there to be predominantly female pundits and the odd bloke.<\/p>\n The BBC\u2019s live coverage of Women\u2019s Euro 2022 begins on Wednesday July 6th with England v Austria at 7pm on BBC One, 5 Live and iPlayer. <\/strong>If you\u2019re looking for something else to watch, check out our\u00a0<\/strong>TV Guide<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0or visit our\u00a0<\/strong>Sport<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0hub.<\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>subscribe now<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and get the next 12 issues for only \u00a31. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0<\/strong>Radio Times podcast<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0with Jane Garvey.<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Amy Raphael Published: Tuesday, 05 July 2022 at 12:00 am Gary Lineker might be the face of football punditry, but when it comes to the Women\u2019s Euro 2022 competition, he\u2019ll just be watching. Speaking to Radio Times magazine ahead of the launch of the tournament, the pundit reflects on how far the sport has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":17948,"template":"","categories":[7,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/gary-lineker-the-standard-of-womens-football-is-high-ill-be-watching-womens-euro-2022-scaled.jpg",2560,1705,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/gary-lineker-the-standard-of-womens-football-is-high-ill-be-watching-womens-euro-2022-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/gary-lineker-the-standard-of-womens-football-is-high-ill-be-watching-womens-euro-2022-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/gary-lineker-the-standard-of-womens-football-is-high-ill-be-watching-womens-euro-2022-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/gary-lineker-the-standard-of-womens-football-is-high-ill-be-watching-womens-euro-2022-1024x682.jpg",800,533,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/gary-lineker-the-standard-of-womens-football-is-high-ill-be-watching-womens-euro-2022-1536x1023.jpg",1536,1023,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/gary-lineker-the-standard-of-womens-football-is-high-ill-be-watching-womens-euro-2022-2048x1364.jpg",2048,1364,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Amy Raphael Published: Tuesday, 05 July 2022 at 12:00 am Gary Lineker might be the face of football punditry, but when it comes to the Women\u2019s Euro 2022 competition, he\u2019ll just be watching. Speaking to Radio Times magazine ahead of the launch of the tournament, the pundit reflects on how far the sport has…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/17947"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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