The BBC’s Euro 2024 host Gary Lineker has stated he will say sorry to Frank Lampard after making a quip about his appearance.
According to viewers, Gary’s comment appeared to leave Frank “furious”.
The pair appeared on the BBC’s live post-match analysis of Germany’s 2-0 win against Hungary on Wednesday (June 19). This is where Gary made an awkward joke about Frank’s hair – or lack of it.
Gary Lineker vows to say sorry to Euro 2024 co-star Frank Lampard
The commentators were reacting to a clip showing thousands of Germany fans celebrating a goal in the fanzone at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Gary then made the unwarranted quip.
The BBC presenter said to Frank: “I wish they’d take that screen down then we’d see all the punters, but if they took the screen down they wouldn’t be able to watch the game would they?”
Lampard smiled and responded: “They’d see the back of our heads, they wouldn’t turn up for that.”
Gary didn’t hesitate in joking back: “No, definitely not, no one wants to see the back of your head these days do they, Frank? That’s for sure.”
Afterwards, the studio went eerily silent. Frank sat there straight-faced and clearly unimpressed, whilst co-stars Alex Scott and Thomas Frank also failed to laugh.
Since then, the clip has done the rounds on social media, with plenty of fans of the show reacting. One joked: “Gary Lineker has just absolutely bodied Frank Lampard on live TV Lampard’s face is killing me. The fume.”
Another agreed: “What’s he saying – his bald patch?!”
A third said: “He didn’t have to do Frank like that.” “He looks furious,” said another.
Gary Lineker has just absolutely bodied Frank Lampard on live TV Lampards face is killing me. The fume pic.twitter.com/cGmdAHnvjO
— Slaughts_1 (@Slaughts_1) June 19, 2024
Gary Lineker’s Frank Lampard quip goes viral
Meanwhile, Gary admitted that he got himself “in a pickle” and should apologise over the viral moment. He said on The Rest is Football podcast: “I got myself in a bit of a pickle anyway, I feel bad.”
He continued: “I did this bit and I didn’t mean it the way it came out but it’s quite funny and Frank’s as good as gold, he doesn’t mind.
“We’re at the end of the game and they showed one of Germany’s goals and then they cut to the celebration of the fans in the fans’ park which is right behind our studio just behind Brandenburg Gate.
“There’s a big screen so you can’t see all the fans from where we are, except when if Germany are playing, for example, and there’s the big screen but sometimes they don’t. It goes miles back, I think you can get something like 100,000 people in there.
“So we cut up the celebration and I said: ‘That’s behind us and we could actually see them if it wasn’t for the big screen, but then they’ve got to watch the game on that screen otherwise they’d be looking at the back of our heads.'”
‘I will apologise’
“And I just said, it just came out, and meant it actually about all of us, I just said: ‘You don’t want anyone really looking at the back of your head do you, Frank?'”
“And obviously Frank is slightly thinning, and I’m slightly thinning in my old age a little bit, and I actually meant it about everyone. But when it came out, it came out a bit wrong.
“And you know Frank does that thing where he smiles and then suddenly he doesn’t smile, which I think he’s done a commercial about it which is great, and Frank’s great fun, he won’t mind, but I must admit when I got back to the hotel and saw it on social media I went: ‘Oh, you idiot.’
“I haven’t seen him since, I saw it went viral, I will apologise because it wasn’t deliberate, it wasn’t deliberate, but I get how funny it is, those things happen in live TV, that’s live television, it’s funny, it didn’t matter.”
Read more: Inside Gary Lineker controversy: From presenter’s tweets to BBC Match of the Day crisis
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