Dunphy savages Lineker

April 4, 2007

Dunphy fires broadside at 'banal' Lineker

Paul Kelso

Wednesday April 4, 2007

The Guardian

The debate about Match of the Day stalwarts Gary Lineker and Alan Hansen has been reopened by one of their counterparts in Ireland, with the controversial broadcaster and author Eamon Dunphy dismissing the BBC's flagship football show as "insulting" and "dishonest", and describing Lineker as "banal".

Dunphy, the former Millwall and Manchester United player who ghosted Roy Keane's biography, has a habit of attacking sacred cows in general and MoTD in particular, but his comments, made in the latest Four Four Two magazine, come at an unfortunate time for the BBC.

The loss of England and FA Cup rights last week left the corporation without live domestic football from 2008, and were accompanied by revelations that the FA chief executive Brian Barwick found Lineker and Alan Hansen too critical for his liking.

Dunphy, a pundit on RTÉ's Premiership highlights show, believes they were not nearly critical enough. "What I'm seeing on Match of the Day every week is pretty dreadful," he said. "They just talk drivel. Whoever is winning is great, whoever isn't, isn't.

"It's banal. And also semi-literate at times ... they never criticise in an intelligent way. Anything that isn't banal is said to be an outburst. They've created this cartoon world where everyone talks like Lineker and says nothing."

Falconhoof · April 4, 2007

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