How DO you deal with a problem like Gary Lineker?

Of all the in-trays in all the world, the one you wouldn’t necessarily like sitting on your desk right now is that facing the brand spanking new head of BBC Sport, Alex Kay-Jelski.

He might be a rookie broadcast executive, but as a former sports lead at the Daily Mail and The Times, and head of the sports subscription service, The Athletic, he has shown a determination to climb mountains.

None as big as this challenge: the trickiest peak Kay-Jelski now has to tackle is what to do about Gary Lineker and the wellbeing of Match of the Day, the self-proclaimed ‘world’s most famous football show’. In truth, it probably is.

Certainly, the statesmanlike nature of a programme that has run almost interrupted since 1964 (who can forget that ITV version from 2001-2004?), spells trouble for anyone who tries to tackle it and gets it wrong. It’s a ticket to a certain relegation to the lower leagues. Kay-Jelski is smart enough (or he should be) to know that.

For many, weekends are incomplete without their diet of goals, interviews, analysis and ‘banter’ and the Beeb’s top highlights show is must-watch viewing for anyone who cares about football. It is still pulling in four million viewers a show, despite the multiple ways in which one can obtain similar goal opportunities anywhere you look.

Kay-Jelski arrives at the Beeb as the former sports lead at the Daily Mail and The Times

He was also head of the sports subscription service, The Athletic, and now takes control of a show still raking in 4million viewers every show

It is a curious blip on the TV landscape. Hardly anyone watches highlights shows any more, as football fans only have to point their mobile phones in the right direction to see all the goals and highlights within seconds of them happening. Live sport is where the big money is spent and there is a sense that highlights, once to be celebrated as a bite-size way to follow sport, are now prehistoric.

Instead the BBC packages Match of the Day together with 5Live radio commentaries to strike a ‘free-to-air’ deal worth millions with the Premier League, with the present contract running until 2029.

The BBC has been looking to dumb down its coverage everywhere else, from Radio 4 to the failing and fading Football Focus, in search of a younger audience. But at least Match of the Day (Or MOTD as some there tiresomely like to refer to it) on a Saturday night is refreshingly similar to all those shows from yesterday.

The first Match of the Day, showing highlights of Liverpool versus Arsenal, was watched by an estimated audience of 20,000. Kenneth Wolstenholme was the presenter and, since then, such sports broadcasting luminaries as Frank Bough, David Coleman, Jimmy Hill, Bob Wilson and Des Lynam have sat in the presenter’s chair. Lineker has had the gig since 1999, earning £1.35m per year for anchoring events with his charming, matey style.

The show currently portrays a charming, matey style, with pundits such as Alan Shearer and Ian Wright (pictured) working on it

Lineker has followed Frank Bough, David Coleman, Jimmy Hill, Bob Wilson and Des Lynam in sitting in the presenter’s chair

Match of the Day is a rare and proper gem in the BBC sports tiara, not least because the national broadcaster doesn’t have much in the way of real live sport any more. Partly it’s the chemistry between the presenters, though that is about to change with Ian Wright retiring after the Euros this summer. So is this a good time for Lineker to step aside too? Maybe Wright could move on as Arsenal win the Premier League title and Lineker could go after England lift the Euros? Everyone’s a winner…

Criticially, who replaces Lineker as he dances through his 25th year as the presenter in much the same way as he once left defenders in his wake?

Mark ‘Chappers’ Chapman, who has the battered charm of a man who has seen one too many Shed Seven concerts, has to be the leading candidate. He already hosts Match of the Day 2, Sunday’s little cousin show, which is so watchable. He also knows his sport from many years across BBC Radio.

Former England player Jermaine Jenas, who has become such a skilled presenter he’s almost impossible to get off the screen, is another who would be a popular alternative. There is Alex Scott too, inevitably. She is bound to be in the conversation, regardless of Football Focus sinking like a boat at sea with a hole in the hull.

There is the smaller question of who gets the job hosting the BBC’s new Champions League highlights programme from September, which will be another drain on resources. But without Lineker, football highlights on the BBC loses a lot of its easy watchability.

Mark Chapman will likely be the leading candidate to replace Lineker when he does call it a day

Alex Scott is also bound to be in the conversation, regardless of Football Focus sinking like a boat at sea with a hole in the hull

There are other challenges for Kay-Jelski too. He stands or falls on the blockbuster live events. No longer do they have the best Olympic coverage, the best rugby coverage, the best cricket coverage, the best F1 coverage, the best boxing coverage, the best golf coverage. Others simply do it better, what can he do about that, if anything?

But put yourself in Lineker’s expensively tailored loafers for a moment. Sure he’s the BBC’s best-paid employee, doing Match of the Day and other broadcasting commitments – Sports Personality of the Year, for example, for which he retains a bizarre affection.

He enjoys a fantastic deal, which lets him work for other people and make adverts. What’s not to like? It’s also a job he clearly loves. And the number of broadcasters who voluntarily step aside is vanishingly small. A new contract apparently remains unsigned until the new guy takes office.

On the other hand, he gets ticked off publicly by the BBC’s Director General Tim Davie, he is a totemic figure for anti-wokeists everywhere, and his freedom to say what the hell he likes, when he likes on Twitter/X has been severely reined in. Away from the BBC he can do what he wants.

Don’t forget it was only just over a year ago that the BBC was in the midst of one of its biggest crisis, when Lineker was suspended for criticising the Government’s asylum policy, leading to a wildcat strike in solidarity with him, and an episode of Match of the Day going to air without ANY presenter. So it can be done without him.

Meanwhile Lineker’s social media army is colossal, with nearly nine million followers on Twitter/X and 1.2m on Instagram. His podcast leviathan, Goalhanger productions, is sweeping everything before it, making some of the country’s most popular shows including ‘The Rest Is …’ series, and now expanding into live events. He has even hinted that he might quit MOTD to focus on podcasting. ‘Maybe,’ he said in an interview. ‘Who knows? It’s a very, very good business. Life’s thrown many things at me.’ And he’s 63.

Lineker’s podcast leviathan, Goalhanger productions, is sweeping everything before it

When he leaves, it will mark the end of another era for Match of the Day, and that may be soon

As a former top sportsman, one of the very best, he knows that it makes sense to get out at the top, like Roger Federer or Stuart Broad. Before he goes though he should give us one of those quotes you never forget. Like his great idol, Des Lynam, introducing the BBC’s coverage of the England vs Tunisia match at the France ’98 World Cup. It was a lunchtime kick-off and Lynam asked, all twinkly, wrinkly charm, ‘Shouldn’t you be at work?’

Speaking to regular sidekicks Alan Shearer and Micah Richards on a podcast recently, Lineker jokingly suggested that his advancing age might bring his tenure as host to an end.

‘I’m ancient. My time is nearly up.’

Gary, old son, you may well be right.