Gary Lineker ‘to leave’ BBC this week after anti-Semitism row

Gary Lineker is expected to present his final Match of the Day programme this Sunday, 26 years after he took over from Des Lynam. Photograph: Nick Potts/PA Wire RESTRICTIONS: Use subject to restrictions. Editorial use only, no commercial use without prior consent from rights holder.

Gary Lineker is expected to announce that he is leaving the BBC on Monday after apologising for amplifying online material with anti-Semitic connotations.

The Match of the Day host will reportedly not present the broadcaster’s 2026 World Cup coverage or next season’s FA Cup after “bowing out by mutual agreement”.

He is expected to present his final Match of the Day programme this Sunday, 26 years after he took over from Des Lynam.

Last week, the 64-year-old apologised after it emerged he had reposted a pro-Palestine video on social media that criticised Zionism and included an illustration of a rat.

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A rat is an anti-Semitic trope that was used in Nazi Germany to characterise Jews as vermin. Lineker said in a statement that he would “never knowingly share anything anti-Semitic” and had deleted the post “as soon as I became aware of the issue”.

The BBC director general, Tim Davie, had been facing calls all week to sack Lineker, who was paid £1.4 million (€1.664 million) by the BBC last year.

“The BBC’s reputation is held by everyone and when someone makes a mistake, it costs us,” Mr Davie said when asked about the incident after giving a speech in Salford. “I think we absolutely need people to be exemplars of the BBC’s values and follow our social media policy. Simple as that.”

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More than 10,000 people signed a petition, sponsored by the Campaign Against anti-Semitism, which urged the BBC to “immediately remove Gary Lineker from his position”.

Lineker was already due to leave his role on Match of the Day at the end of the season, but was expected to host the corporation’s coverage of the FA Cup in 2025-26 and the World Cup next summer.

He will be replaced on Match of the Day by Gabby Logan, Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman, who will share the presenting role from the next Premier League season.

“Gary acknowledged his position at the BBC, anchoring the most prestigious tournament in world football, was untenable, and he will not be hosting the World Cup,” a source told The Sun.

“He offered to step down at the end of the season, and did not want the BBC – an organisation he still holds in the highest of esteem – dragged into any further controversy.

“He remains absolutely devastated by the recent turn of events and is deeply regretful about how his post was interpreted. His last Match of the Day will air on Sunday now and he won’t be back.”

In March 2023, Lineker was temporarily suspended from the BBC over comments he made criticising the Conservative government’s asylum policy.

In February this year, he was also among 500 high-profile cultural figures who called on the BBC to rebroadcast a documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone, calling it an “essential piece of journalism”.

The broadcaster removed the documentary from BBC iPlayer after it emerged that the film’s 14-year-old narrator was the son of a deputy agriculture minister in the territory’s Hamas-run government.

The BBC declined to comment when contacted. – Guardian

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