Gary Lineker to leave BBC next week in wake of social media controversy

Gary Lineker will leave the BBC next week after 26 years with the broadcaster, days after he apologised for sharing a pro-Palestine social media post which featured a picture of a rat.

The 64-year-old said he would “never knowingly share anything antisemitic” after reposting a video on his Instagram account from the group Palestine Lobby, titled “Zionism explained in two minutes”.

The post included an image of a rat, which Lineker said he was not aware of. Rats have been used to represent antisemitic propaganda throughout history, including by the Nazis in 1930s Germany.

Lineker’s apology was followed by the publication of an interview with the Daily Telegraph in which Lineker said Israel’s response to the 7 October terrorist attacks was “completely out of proportion”.

In comments that were made before sharing the pro-Palestine post on social media, the former England striker said anyone who was silent on the war in Gaza was “almost complicit” and called Israel’s actions “depraved”.

Lineker was to leave Match of the Day at the end of the season, and he planned to continue presenting some of the BBC’s football coverage through to the end of the 2026 World Cup next summer.

But the former England striker’s social media post reopened previous tensions with the broadcaster over its impartiality guidelines and reportedly upset some BBC colleagues.

Tim Davie, the director general of the BBC, urged staff to “follow the rules” when it came to impartiality in the wake of Lineker’s apology and his re-post on Instagram.

The BBC briefly removed Lineker from hosting Match of the Day in March 2023 after he compared the government’s language used in launching an asylum seeker policy to 1930s Germany.

It did not stop Lineker from criticising the BBC’s impartiality guidelines, stating: “Why shouldn’t I have an opinion on things? I’m a bloody footballer who’s turned into a sports presenter.”

Last month, Lineker said he thought senior executives at the BBC wanted him to step down and in his recent interview with the Daily Telegraph appeared to criticise the BBC’s new director of sport Alex Kay-Jelski.

He had signed a new one-year contract to stay on to host the 2026 men’s World Cup and had confirmed that would not take up another presenting role, instead focusing on his podcast empire with Goalhanger.