Ben Stokes won the award, but it looks like Gary Lineker let the result slip quite a bit too early.
On Sunday night, England cricketer Ben Stokes won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
Stokes had led the England cricket team to a World Cup in extremely dramatic circumstances, alongside captain (and Irishman) Eoin Morgan.
Three cricket stars (Jason Roy, Eoin Morgan and Stokes) were present at the BBC’s awards night in Aberdeen, and were called on stage by Lineker an hour before the award was announced.
And that was when Lineker himself had a bit of a howler…
He said: “Please welcome England world cup winner Jason Roy, captain Eoin Morgan and main award winner Ben Stokes.”
He quickly backtracked on his comments, saying that he had meant to say contender instead of winner, but the damage was done.
He also took to Twitter to say that the voting hadn’t even begun at that stage, and that he had just “f**ed up”…
I wish I was that smart. I just f**ked up. The voting hadn’t even opened at that stage. Apologies. https://t.co/IVHhelQRZJ
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) December 15, 2019
Stokes was a heavy favourite to win the award going into the night, with Manchester City footballer Raheem Sterling also nominated.
On Saturday night, Shane Lowry was crowned RTÉ Sportsperson of the Year. Luckily there was no leaks on our end.
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