Gary Lineker is to leave the BBC and will host his final Match of the Day this Sunday, reports have suggested.
Sources told The Sun the former England striker will leave the corporation by mutual agreement, and will also no longer host the BBC’s coverage of the 2026 World Cup.
It comes after the star apologised for sharing a post about the situation in Gaza, which featured a rat, considered an anti-Semitic symbol.
He came under criticism after he shared, then deleted, a post on his Instagram account from the group, Palestine Lobby, illustrated with a picture of a rat, titled: “Zionism explained in two minutes.”
In a statement, he later said said: “On Instagram I reposted material which I have since learned contained offensive references. I very much regret these references. I would never knowingly share anything antisemitic.
“It goes against everything I believe in.”
He added he apologised reservedly, and took full responsibility for the “mistake”.
Rats, linked to disease and dirt, have been used to represent Jews in antisemitic propaganda throughout history, including by the Nazis in 1930s Germany.
Speaking earlier on Wednesday, the director general of the BBC said people need to follow the broadcaster’s social media rules when asked about the row involving the Lineker post.
Lineker revealed in October he would leave Match of the Day at the end of this season, but would still anchor the World Cup 2026.
Earlier this year, Lineker condemned – along with more than 500 other media figures – the withdrawal of the documentary Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone after it emerged that the child narrator, Abdullah, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.
He said the BBC had “capitulated”, adding that he does not see Abdullah as an issue, and maintaining that the corporation should not have admitted to “a number of serious failings in their commissioning and editorial processes”.
Lineker has been the BBC’s highest-paid on-air talent for seven consecutive years and was estimated to have earned £1.35 million in the year 2023/24, according to the corporation’s annual report published in July.
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