England football legend hits out at ‘extraordinarily racist’ USA ahead of 2026 World Cup

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Gary Lineker has hit out at the United States as an extraordinarily racist country before it co-hosted the 2026 World Cup.

The football player-turned-commentator has been at the forefront of BBC’s World Cup coverage in Qatar in recent weeks.

Speaking to the News Agents podcast, Lineker chatted with host Emily Maitlis about why Qatar was allowed to host the 2022 World Cup in the first place.

He said: We reported facts at the start of the tournament; these facts remain. So a lot of people were killed doing the stadiums. Yes, stadiums are amazing, but at a great price. Homophobia is a problem here, women’s rights are a bit of a problem here.

For me, it was always more on the corruption side because, as I said before, I think almost every country, including ours, has problems, he continued. And were leaving for America in four years, with Canada and Mexico, but obviously the Americas an extraordinarily racist country.

Gary Lineker led the BBC’s coverage of the Qatar World Cup.

Gary Lineker led the BBC’s coverage of the Qatar World Cup.

Lineker added this point while indicating that there are always problems with the host countries, but noted that with Qatar it was more the fact that we have just highlighted a few facts and in particular the aspect of its corruption.

He continued: They said it was going to be summer and it was winter. I don’t think anything particularly changed, but it was a crack tournament, but that’s football; football is a wonderful sport.

Lineker has previously faced backlash from Qatar for discussing the country’s human rights record on air instead of showing the opening ceremony on the BBC.

The head of the Qatar World Cup committee, Hassan Al-Thawadi, later claimed that the BBC coverage was very racist. But, speaking to news agents, Lineker wondered if any high-ranking people in Qatar had even watched the BBC coverage in the first place. He also denied that there were any discussions with Qatari authorities over his discussion of the country’s controversies.

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He said: There was a time when the guy went to a radio station at his house, I think he’s one of the organizers, and said he had tried to contact me many times to get an interview and that, frankly, it wasn’t true at all, neither to me nor to my agent. And then he said it was through the BBC and the BBC had no record of it.

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