Gary Lineker to host new ITV sport present The Field

Gary Lineker is to host a brand new TV sport present known as The Field, ITV has confirmed.

The brand new present will see the previous Match of the Day presenter oversee 10 yellow containers, every housing superstar contestants who will likely be transported to unknown places, the place they are going to participate in several video games.

Will probably be his first presenting job since leaving Match of the Day in Could amid an antisemitism row.

Lineker, who beforehand hosted one other ITV sport present, Sitting on a Fortune – for 13 episodes throughout two seasons from 2021 to 2023 – stated in a press release: “I can not wait to host The Field.”

He continued: “I’ve at all times felt proper at house within the field on a soccer pitch, and while this can be a totally different proposition, the basics are related.

“The contestants must rapidly and masterfully work out how every sport works, while additionally making an attempt to get forward of the competitors to take management.

“It will be unpredictable and thrilling to observe, and I am excited that I get to have a entrance row seat to all of the motion!”

The sequence, based mostly on a present that aired lately in Norway, will likely be filmed within the UK later this yr earlier than being broadcast on ITV in 2026.

Every week, two gamers will face off in a dramatic finale often called “the duel”.

ITV leisure boss Katie Rawcliffe stated Lineker was “the right match for The Field”, which she promised would supply “an entertaining, exhilarating and immersive new format.”

In Could, Lineker held again tears as he signed off from his remaining version of Match of the Day after 26 years within the sizzling seat and formally left the BBC.

He had been as a result of stay with the BBC for the upcoming season to entrance its protection of the lads’s FA Cup and later the World Cup, however he left sooner than deliberate after apologising for sharing an antisemitic social media submit.

The ex-Barcelona and England footballer can also be co-founder of Goalhanger Podcasts, makers of the favored The Relaxation Is Historical past sequence and its spin-offs about politics, leisure, cash and soccer – for which he’s a co-host.

Goalhanger lately struck a cope with Spanish soccer league La Liga, to indicate clips from its matches plus weekly highlights and evaluation from Lineker and fellow presenter Alex Aljoe.