BBC will not fund Alan Shearer and Micah Richards’ World Cup podcast costs

Licence fee payers will not shoulder any of the cost linked to BBC pundits Alan Shearer and Micah Richards’ work on The Rest Is Football podcast during this summer’s World Cup, the Press Association understands.

The podcast will be aired on Netflix this summer in video form after the streaming giant struck a deal with Goalhanger Podcasts, a company co-founded by former BBC presenter Gary Lineker, in December.

It is understood flights, accommodation and other expenses related to Shearer and Richards’ work for the podcast will be kept entirely separate from costs connected to their work for the BBC.

Former England and Newcastle striker Shearer is expected to be in North America throughout the finals and will fit his commitments to the podcast around his contracted BBC work.

Richards, a Premier League title winner with Manchester City in 2012 and 2014, is expected to be primarily studio-based in the UK for his BBC work, but it is understood he will be free to travel to and from the US for other work that does not clash with his BBC commitments.

It is expected more than 40 episodes of TRIF will go out as part of the World Cup deal with Netflix, with the schedule and content for an audio-only version published in the conventional way alongside the video podcasts still to be confirmed.

While Lineker is expected to be in a studio in New York for each of the podcasts, there is an acceptance that Shearer and Richards – while still set to be heavily involved – may sometimes need to dial in virtually due to their BBC work.

The Times has reported the World Cup deal between Goalhanger and Netflix is worth £14million, which dwarfs Lineker’s BBC 2024-25 annual salary of £1.35 million.

It is not clear whether Netflix or Goalhanger will