Gary Lineker is a big hitter Scottish football is not

He used to be the man they loved to hate on the pitch for the goals he scored.

Now he’s the man they love to hate off the pitch for what he earns.

Yes, Gary Lineker has never been on the Tartan Army’s Christmas card list.

And the news he will now be fronting BT Sport’s coverage of the Champions League is not going to alter that situation.

Of course, quality costs money.

Top players earn top dollar. Top broadcasters pay through the nose for top tournaments.

So why has Gary Lineker’s wage packet caused such a stir, particularly in Scotland?

The Match of the Day presenter was thrust into a media storm when SPFL chairman Ralph Topping accused the BBC of “selling Scottish football short”.

His proof? Lineker’s wages, he claimed, were TWICE what the Beeb paid to broadcast Scottish games.

And that was BEFORE he landed himself a pay rise!

The news that Lineker was adding another nice little earner to his portfolio must have hit Topping like a ton of bricks.

But the simple truth is that Scottish football is less attractive to broadcasters than Gary Lineker.

Ralph might have an issue with that, but you won’t catch me slagging Gary off for being well paid.

He’s a top professional, a fantastic presenter, and he’s worth every penny.

The market says so and that’s what matters.

I was banging them in at Ipswich Town when Gary burst onto the scene at Leicester City, so I’ve known him for years.

He was a top, top player, but at first, there was plenty of doubt about his ability as a TV presenter.

I remember sticking up for the guy when he first took over Match of the Day from Des Lynam.

At that time, he was very wooden in front of the camera and he was slagged rotten for it.

But I could see he had something that bit of charisma, that air of authority.

Give him a chance, I was saying to people, he’ll come good and so he has.

These days, he’s on the verge of being an iconic presenter, like Lynam was before him.

When you hear the Match of the Day theme tune, you think of Gary immediately. That’s testament to his value and the BBC know that.

It’s also why BT Sport want him for their Champions League broadcasts, and it’s why the likes of Al Jazeera in the Middle East and NBC in the US have also employed him.

Gary is a big hitter. Scottish football is not.

At a time when the national team has been involved in some of its biggest games in years, that’s a fact nobody has much time for.

But it’s a fact all the same.

And it’s why I believe Ralph Topping was wrong to use Lineker’s pay packet to make his point.

Gary Lineker and Scottish football are in different leagues.

The former is concerned with the Premier League and the Champions League, with the best players in the world, with the very richest clubs.

The latter, to put it politely, is not.

That’s the real issue here, not how much Gary Lineker gets paid by the BBC to do what he does.

It’s very easy for guys like Ralph Topping to point fingers at broadcasters for short-changing Scottish football.

It’s very easy to use a top presenter’s wages as a convenient distraction.

Looking at what Scottish football has done to help itself is much harder.

But that’s what has to happen. Until it does, the SPFL’s slice of the pie will only get smaller and smaller.