Gary Lineker prefers pundit role to his playing days

Gary Lineker does not miss playing football and prefers his job as a football pundit.

The Match Of The Day host made the admission while speaking to a packed audience at Byline Festival in East Sussex on Sunday.

He said: "I have not played a game of sport since I retired.

"I retired for a reason, because I wasn't very good any more.

"To be perfectly honest, I don't miss playing. I never missed playing."

He joked: "I think I always thought I was getting away with it.

"And then (when I retired) I kind of thought I did get away with it."

But he said he "loved football" and playing, adding: "It was a great time.

"It's a wonderful sport."

He said if he was "really honest" he preferred his job now, adding: "Being a goalscorer is hard. There's a lot of pressure on you.

"My life is more enjoyable (now)."

The 57-year-old said the BBC show was an "integral part of watching football", adding: "I love the show. It's a flagship programme. I hope to continue."

But he said the "explosion of joy" experienced after an important goal or significant win when playing was incomparable and irreplaceable.

He said his one "if only" moment of his career was the 1990 semi-final match against West Germany.

He said he thinks about it around once a year but his late football manager Sir Bobby Robson told him he thought about it every day.

He added: "We were a whisker away from winning the World Cup."

England's performance in this year's tournament had him "more excited than he had been for a long time".

The team did so well with so little experience that in four or eight years England could have the potential to win, he added.

The four-day independent journalism and free speech festival is taking place in Pippingford Park in the Ashdown Forest near Uckfield.