Alan Shearer earns £450,000 a year for BBC punditry and Match of the Day

The former Newcastle United and England striker's remuneration has been called into question by licence-fee payers

Alan Shearer has been revealed to be one of the BBC's highest earners, netting between £400,000 and £449,999 per year from the licence-payer-funded broadcaster.

The former England captain's salary has come into question, with his role as a pundit on Match of the Day and other BBC shows seeing him paid significantly more than many of his contemporaries elsewhere in the corporation and particularly women, who are under-represented in the upper reaches of the Beeb's latest salary reveal.

Shearer has drawn criticism from viewers for his punditry style, which has been outstripped by a new generation of analysts on satellite television such as Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher.

Viewers on Twitter reacted with surprise as Shearer's bumper pay packet was published:

Claire Balding, considered one of the finest broadcasters of a generation, earns less than half of what Shearer takes home and even Sue Barker, who fronts some of the BBC's biggest sporting broadcasts, comes in under Shearer's package.