Inside the week that brought Gary Lineker down as ex-England striker expected to resign from BBC

Irish Independent

19-05-2025

A week since recklessly plunging the corporation into yet another crisis, Lineker is expected to announce on Monday that he is leaving immediately after his final Match of the Day on Sunday and will no longer present its coverage of next summer's World Cup.
It caps an extraordinary fall from grace for the BBC's highest-paid star, whose brazen refusal to follow its editorial guidelines finally cost him his £1.35 million-a-year job.
His fate was arguably sealed the moment he took to Instagram Story at around lunchtime last Monday to share a video by the campaign group Palestine Lobby with his 1.2 million followers.
Rat post
The clip, which was accompanied by the caption 'Zionism explained in less than 2 mins' showed Canadian-Palestinian lawyer Diana Buttu attacking Israel over its alleged occupation of Palestinian land. It also featured a cartoon image of a rat, a well-known anti-Semitic slur used by, among others, Nazi Germany.
This is the same Lineker who, barely two years earlier, had used his X account to compare the rhetoric of the then Conservative Government around immigration to that which triggered the Holocaust.
That post, too, had plunged the BBC into crisis, with Lineker initially suspended before being reinstated when colleagues walked out in solidarity, causing Match of the Day to air without commentary or punditry for the first time in its history.
The corporation had responded by beefing up its impartiality guidelines to cover presenters of its 'flagship programmes', but Lineker refused to be silenced.
In January last year, he shared an X post calling for Israel to be thrown out of international football, only to delete it after apparently misunderstanding the message.
Doubling down
Then, last month, he conducted an interview with the BBC's Amol Rajan in which he defended his right to speak out against Israel's response to the October 7 terrorist attacks there.
'I'm sorry. It's more important than the BBC. What's going on there is the mass murder of thousands of children [and] is probably something that we should have a little opinion on.'
ADVERTISEMENT
By last Monday evening, the screengrab showing Lineker had shared an 'anti-Semitic' rat image was being circulated online, including by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), which posted on X: 'Nothing to see here. Just Gary Lineker's Instagram account sharing an anti-Israel video misrepresenting Zionism, complete with a rat emoji.'
Other critics reported the screengrab of Lineker's Instagram Story to X moderators on the grounds it 'may violate X's rules against hateful conduct'.
By the time the screengrab was brought to the attention of Telegraph Sport on Tuesday, the video had been deleted from Lineker's Instagram Story.
But it had already provoked outrage among Jewish groups and calls for his head.
The CAA posted on X: Having looked the other way until now, at this point, it is clear that Gary Lineker's continued association with the @BBC is untenable. He must go.'
Danny Cohen, former director of BBC television, told Telegraph Sport: 'Gary Lineker appears to have shared content about the Jewish state which echoes Nazi propaganda. This is utterly grim.
'The BBC's director general Tim Davie has a simple question to answer: does he tolerate the BBC's flagship presenters sharing content that has historically been used as an anti-Semitic slur?'
Former Labour MP Lord Austin added: 'For too long Gary Lineker has been flagrantly abusing his position as the best-paid presenter at the BBC to promote his deeply biased views. Now he has gone too far, sharing material that, whether he knows it or not, is redolent of the vilest anti-Jewish racism. He cannot be allowed to stay in position, let alone be the face of World Cup coverage. The BBC must act now.'
The firestorm to engulf Lineker had become serious enough for a spokesman for the 64-year-old to issue a statement, which read: 'Whilst viewing and reposting a video, Gary did not notice a rodent emoticon added by the author of the post. Although if he had, he would not have made any connection. The repost has been removed.'
By Wednesday, Jewish BBC staff were privately expressing 'disgust' over the corporation's failure to sack Lineker.
One employee, who in a previous Telegraph article claimed anti-Semitism had become 'normalised' within the organisation, said: 'It is quite simply disgusting that the BBC has not kicked Lineker out. His repeated offensiveness to Jewish people has clearly brought the BBC into disrepute. The interpretation of Zionism he has shared is anti-Semitic and the fact that the BBC thinks it's acceptable is deeply upsetting to its Jewish staff, myself included.'
'He doesn't think the rules apply'
Another insider said the corporation had missed 'perfect opportunity' to part ways with Lineker when he was suspended for comments about the previous Government.
'He's the perfect example of someone who doesn't think the rules apply to them and abuses them at every turn − the type highlighted in the culture review, published no more than a fortnight ago,' said the staffer source.
Another staffer said: 'The BBC's endless willingness to overlook his apparent anti-Semitism dressed as Palestinian advocacy constantly makes Jewish staff feel how little they matter to the corporation. Perhaps Lineker lacks the sophistication to know the difference, but what's senior management's excuse?'
In response to the growing revolt, Davie said people needed to follow the broadcaster's social media rules and that a mistake such as Lineker's 'costs us'.
Speaking at The Lowry arts centre in Salford, Davie said: 'The BBC's reputation is held by everyone and when someone makes a mistake, it costs us.
'And I think we absolutely need people to be the exemplars of BBC values and follow our social media policies, simple as that.'
Lineker was now fighting for his job and he issued an unprecedented personal apology over the post.
'On Instagram I reposted material which I have since learned contained offensive references,' he said.
'I very much regret these references. I would never knowingly share anything anti-Semitic. It goes against everything I believe in.
'The post was removed as soon as I became aware of the issue. Whilst I strongly believe in the importance of speaking out on humanitarian issues, including the tragedy unfolding in Gaza, I also know that how we do so matters.
'I take full responsibility for this mistake. That image does not reflect my views. It was an error on my part for which I apologise unreservedly.'
Nightmare timing of Telegraph interview
But there was no respite for the beleaguered Lineker, with The Telegraph on Thursday publishing an interview with the former England captain that was carried out before the 'anti-Semitic' rat storm.
In it, he went further than ever in his criticism of Israel, branding its response to October 7 'beyond depraved' and 'completely out of proportion' before accusing those who stayed silent about it of being 'almost complicit'.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick, who stood for the leadership of the Conservative Party last year, told Talk TV: 'I thought his comments were disgusting and many other people would have lost their careers over this, whilst the BBC considers it enough to issue an apology, albeit a fulsome one, afterwards. I think the BBC have got very serious questions to answer.'
There were also calls for the corporation to axe Lineker from hosting its coverage of Saturday's FA Cup final.
Alex Hearn from Labour Against Antisemitism said: 'It took two days after sharing blatant racism for Gary Lineker to produce an apology, coming just a few days before he was due to present the FA Cup final.
'If he is allowed to continue in this prestigious role then our national broadcaster will be sending the message that anti-Jewish racism is acceptable. Other presenters have quite rightly been dismissed immediately for racism, and yet this presenter seems to consistently avoid it. There should be no place for any form of racism in the BBC, and they should pull him from schedules including the FA Cup final this weekend.'
But it was what some perceived to be a dig at his boss, Alex Kay-Jelski, by Lineker in his Telegraph interview that may have been the final straw for a corporation that had indulged him bending its rules to breaking point and had even extended his contract to lead its FA Cup and World Cup coverage after he left Match of the Day.
'He wants to change Match of the Day a bit,' Lineker said of Kay-Jelski, who became BBC director of sport last summer. 'Ultimately, I don't think they will, because I don't see how you move a highlights show away from being about highlights. I think he wants more journalists − he has come from that background. He has got no television experience.'
Friday saw the first whispers that the end was nigh, although with Lineker hosting the FA Cup final on Saturday afternoon, there was never going to be any formal announcement until that was out of the way.
By Sunday night, his early departure was a done deal, revealed − as his Match of the Day exit had been − by The Sun, which said he would announce the news on Monday.
A source told the newspaper: '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.
'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.'