Former England international Gary Lineker will leave the show “Match of the Day‘, the BBC’s popular football show, at the end of the season, a year after his temporary suspension from the station.
Gary Lineker. PHOTO: Profimed
Lineker, former player at FC Barcelona, Tottenham and Leicester, former captain of the England national team, became the commentator of the show in 1999.
Last week, Lineker, who will turn 64 at the end of the month, told Esquire magazine that he would have to “slow down at some point“, hinting that he could fully focus on his successful podcast business. But according to the English media, he would still continue to appear on the BBC until the 2026 World Cup.
His departure will be officially announced on Tuesday by the BBC, according to the English media, which referred more to Lineker’s fatigue than to a temporary suspension from the post in March 2023.
Lineker was provisionally suspended for criticizing on his X account a Tory government bill aimed at preventing illegal migrants from seeking asylum in the UK. The former player, who himself hosted refugees, denounced “a cruel policy against the most vulnerable, in a language used by Germany in the 1930s“.
His remarks were heavily criticized by the government and right-wing newspapers, reigniting the debate surrounding the political impartiality in force on BBC broadcasts.
After this incident, the BBC revised its social media rules for its employees and allowed its most famous presenters to express their views on political matters, but without campaigning for political parties or militant organisations.
