The BBC has unveiled its new state-of-the-art World Cup studio in Salford, hitting back at Gary Lineker’s ‘green box’ jibe

The BBC’s director of sport appears to have hit back at Gary Lineker by insisting their new “work-from-home” World Cup studio is not a “green box in Salford”.

Back in April, former BBC presenter Lineker took a swipe at the corporation, ridiculing its decision not to establish a base in the United States. The 65-year-old added that his departure from the broadcaster has enabled him to attend the World Cup in New York, and stated he has no regrets about missing out on fronting their coverage of this summer’s tournament.

Then in mid-May, BBC presenter Gabby Logan mounted a staunch defence of the BBC’s decision to remain in the UK until the last week of the five-and-a-half-week tournament. She cited the “very expensive cost” of moving the studio to the US for the start of the World Cup and claimed it won’t “harm our coverage to not be there”.

Now on Tuesday, six weeks after Lineker’s remarks and just two days before the tournament kicks off, BBC director of sport Alex Kay-Jelski unveiled the broadcaster’s headquarters for this year’s World Cup.

There was no green-screen backdrop in sight, with the BBC instead splashing out on a cutting-edge studio, boasting a vast panoramic screen as its centrepiece. This is designed to create the impression that the studio is overlooking whichever of the 16 World Cup host cities a match is being broadcast from, including Mexico City and New York.

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They have even fitted fans beside the screen to circulate air and replicate a soft breeze. This will sit alongside augmented reality elements in a 360-degree partly-real, partly-virtual environment where BBC presenters, including Logan and Mark Chapman, and pundits will be stationed until the tournament’s final week this summer.

Lineker had been anticipated to front the BBC’s coverage for the competition until his exit was announced in 2025 following a social media post containing a rat emoji, a symbol that has featured in anti-Semitic material. The former Tottenham and England striker subsequently secured a £14million contract with Netflix to host his The Rest is Football podcast from a New York studio, which is due to launch this week.

On 30 April, Lineker boasted about heading to the US for the World Cup and “overlooking Times Square”, while his previous employers remain “in Salford in a green box”.

However, Kay-Jelski said on Tuesday: “It’s not a green box in Salford. It’s a beautiful state-of-the-art studio. No one’s seen it until now. It’s completely fine to assume that what was there before was what it was going to be. And I’m really proud of this.

“The actual end product people are getting at home, I don’t really think it’s that different,” Kay-Jelski added. “If these people were sitting somewhere else, would your viewing be massively changed?

“If I was standing here saying, ‘Everything is going to be done from a studio in Dallas’, you would rightly be saying to me, ‘How can you justify that spend?’”

The tournament gets under way on Thursday when host nation Mexico take on South Korea, while the BBC’s first fixture is anticipated to be Canada’s Group B clash against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday.

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