Gary Lineker reveals Match of the Day blunder he made in last-ever appearance for first time in 26 years
GARY LINEKER revealed the blunder he made for the very first time - in his last-ever Match of the Day show.
Lineker, 64, bowed out from the programme on Sunday night at the end of the Premier League season.
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He had planned to stay on presenting FA Cup matches and front the World Cup coverage next summer.
But the legendary broadcaster walked away from the BBC for good following an anti-semitism row and fall-out with Beeb bosses.
And Lineker admitted he made a glaring error as he closed his final show - and one he had never done before.
Towards the end of the show, there was an emotional montage of friends, colleagues and team-mates paying tribute to the departing host.
The likes of Alan Hansen, Paul Gascoigne, Ian Wright and Lineker's three sons all contributed then after a special message from Andrea Bocelli, Lineker had welled up and was understandably finding it difficult to keep it all together.
So much so that when he went to talk through the final Premier League table, he fluffed his lines.
Lineker could be heard scrambling around trying to find the piece of paper with the script to talk through the table - but with no joy.
And that meant he had to make it up as he went along - and did so with his brilliant charm and ease.
Choking back tears on the live TV show, Lineker said: "I don't know if I can speak. I'll try.
"For one last time, here's the Premier League table."
Then came a pause as he rustled through the papers, before continuing: "And I can't find the copy.
"So I tell you what, you can just read it for yourselves because it doesn't matter.
"Liverpool won the league as you can see, the teams that qualified for the Champions League are Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Newcastle.
"Villa and Forest will also play European football next season.
"Let's have a look at the bottom of the table - it's the first time I've ever ad-libbed this.
"Ermm, the bottom three are going down as they do tend to do at the end of the season.
"One of those teams is, of course, Leicester which is not really how I wanted to finish."
Lineker's mishap prompted sniggering laughter from pundits Alan Shearer and Micah Richards.
'I WAS STRUGGLING'
And when the trio reconvened for their The Rest Is Football podcast, the ex-Leicester striker addressed the gaffe.
Lineker explained: "When they played the montage, I was struggling, especially when I saw my boys.
"Thankfully, that wasn't the last clip because I'd gone at that point and needed time to get myself together to try and get through the end of the show.
"It's weird, isn't it? I presented it for 26 years and I always finish with the Premier League table and then a closing line.
"But for the first time ever, because of everything that was going on, I completely lost what we call the copy, the written form of what I read out over the tables.
"That's written by the subs and it needs to be accurate - you can't make any mistakes.
"For the first time in 26 years, I couldn't find it and it wasn't there, so I just bust which was a bit different."
Lineker was gifted with a couple of presents by Shearer and Richards before making a thank-you speech to end his final appearance on the show, which was closed by Bocelli performing and a series of the season's highlights.
Somewhat ironically, the final game of Lineker's long stint was his beloved Leicester losing with their relegation already confirmed - nine years after he opened Match of the Day in his underpants following their 5,000-1 title win.
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