BBC’s Gary Lineker is reported to be leaving the BBC and to announce his resignation on Monday after receiving backlash for sharing antisemitic content, The Guardian reported.
Last week, Lineker received backlash after he reposted a pro-Palestinian video on social media that criticized Zionism and included a rat emoji, and later apologized for the post.
Rats have historically antisemitic connotations that were popularized in Germany under the Nazi regime.
The English sports broadcaster claimed in a public statement that he would “never knowingly share anything antisemitic” and that he had deleted the post “as soon as I became aware of the issue.”
This resignation comes after numerous campaigns and complaints to the BBC from the Jewish community.
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.Mr Lineker really has the worst luck when it comes to campaigning for his causes without aligning himself with extremists and… pic.twitter.com/0aYTtOlFHH
— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) May 13, 2025
In a statement reported by The Guardian, the company’s director-general, Tim Davie, said, “The BBC’s reputation is held by everyone, and when someone makes a mistake, it costs us.”
“I think we absolutely need people to be exemplars of the BBC’s values and follow our social media policy – simple as that,” Davie said.
Who is Gary Lineker and what controversial statements has he made in the past?
Lineker was already reported to leave his role at the BBC at the end of this season, but was expected to cover the 2025-26 FA Cup and World Cup next summer. However, he will now be “bowing out by mutual agreement” with the British broadcaster, according to reports.
The top-scoring professional footballer has fronted the coverage for back-to-back World Cups, European Championships, and BBC Sports Personality of the Year shows. He has been the BBC’s highest-paid on-air talent for seven consecutive years. Lineker is set to leave the BBC’s flagship soccer program, Match of the Day, when the British soccer season concludes in the next few weeks. He earned £1.35 million in BBC pay last year.
The post comes shortly after Lineker, who is also the former England soccer captain, defended his right to express his opinions on issues such as Gaza in an interview with the BBC’s Amol Rajan.
During the interview, Lineker said: “I know where I stand on this. 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.”
Lineker has also previously removed social media content that caused outrage among the British Jewish community.
In January 2024, he removed a post on X/Twitter calling for Israel to be banned from international football. He had retweeted a pro-Palestinian call for the Jewish state to be banned due to “grave violations of international law,” but reportedly misunderstood the message and removed the post following a backlash from MPs who were angered by his “ill-informed” and “inappropriate” use of social media.
He also compared the then-Conservative government to acting in a way that was “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the ‘30s.’” His suspension following this event caused a mass walkout from BBC Sport in protest, demanding he be reinstated.