Gary Lineker's podcast empire has been forced into an embarrassing apology after Millie Bright's podcast used an image of her Chelsea team-mate Lauren James being sent off to promote the most recent episode.
The Daly Brightness podcast, which is produced by Lineker's company Goalhanger , is co-hosted by Chelsea captain Bright and her former England team-mate Rachel Daly but it has been claimed neither player was responsible for the image used.
In their latest show, the pair discussed England's dramatic penalty shoot-out victory over Nigeria during the 2023 World Cup, describing it as their most memorable game.
James was sent off in the fixture after standing on Nigeria's Michelle Alozie. The England forward was targeted with racist abuse following the incident.
In the 30-minute podcast, James's red card was only mentioned once, by Daly. But the original thumbnail used on social media included a picture of James standing on her opponent.
Fans were heavily critical of the decision to use that picture, given James is still regularly subjected to racist abuse because of it. Most of their anger was directed towards Bright, given she is James's Chelsea team-mate and was England captain during that World Cup.
Rachel Daly (left) and Millie Bright (centre) briefly spoke about James's (right) red card on their latest podcast episode - Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images
The thumbnail was later changed and the production team has now issued an apology.
"The Daly Brightness production team would like to apologise for the image used on one of today's episode thumbnails," a statement read.
"We always aim to consider the full context of the content we share, but we missed the mark on this occasion and are sorry for the upset caused.
"This was a production decision, and not something Millie and Rachel had any control over. We have removed the thumbnail from all platforms. Thank you for watching and listening."
It is not the first time the podcast has been criticised by fans. Earlier this season, Bright and Daly came under fire for comments made after the release of Mary Earps's controversial book.
Earps heavily criticised Bright's Chelsea team-mate Hannah Hampton in the book, claiming she had been dropped from the England squad in 2022 due to "bad behaviour".
Bright and Daly refused to comment on the situation but drew ire for describing the saga as "gossip".
Daly said: "Everyone is going to want us to touch on the Hannah and Mary saga," before Bright interjected: "We've seen your tweets, we know you want us to have a gossip."
Daly then said: "We're not here to gossip, our podcast isn't about that. Everyone is going to have their own opinion, freedom of speech, say what you want, people are going to say this, people are going to say that, and I think for us, we just think that our podcast is more about spreading positivity and spreading joy. Think what you want but we're not commenting on it, sorry."
Their take was vastly different to that of Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor, who hit out at Earps for her comments on Hampton.
"With what I read in terms of the comments coming from Mary Earps, it's not acceptable to not show respect to your team-mates or managers," Bompastor said.
"If you look at what Hannah said in her previous comments about Mary Earps, then what Mary is saying about her now – one of them is class, and Hannah is the class one."
Bright and Daly's podcast is part of The Rest Is Football network, which Lineker hosts alongside Micah Richards and Alan Shearer.
