Gary Lineker says will step down from BBC after social media post on Zionism

Gary Lineker, the former England footballer and currently a football commentator and media celebrity, will step down from his role as a presenter for the BBC after facing criticism for reposting an Instagram story about Zionism which featured an image of a rat.

The 64-year-old Lineker, who is the BBC's highest-paid presenter on about £1.3 million ($1.7 million) a year, was set to leave the flagship soccer highlights show 'Match of the Day' at the end of this season after more than 25 years at the helm, but remain with the corporation to front other football coverage, including next year's men's football World Cup.

However, on Monday he said he would leave the BBC after the final 'Match of the Day' next weekend in the wake of his decision to share a post from the group Palestine Lobby, illustrated with a picture of a rat, titled: 'Zionism explained in two minutes.'

Rats, linked to disease and dirt, have been used to represent Jews in antisemitic propaganda throughout history, including by the Nazis in 1930s Germany.

In a statement issued earlier on Wednesday, Lineker said he reposted material which he has since subsequently learned contained “offensive references”, adding that he withdrew the post as soon as he became aware of the issue. “I take full responsibility for this mistake," Lineker said. “I would never knowingly share anything antisemitic. It goes against everything I believe in."

Lineker, of course, is no stranger to controversy. The former Tottenham Hotspur and Barcelona striker has been reprimanded on prior occasions over his activities on social media. Most notably, he was temporarily suspended from the BBC in March 2023 after an impartiality row over comments he made criticising the then Conservative government's new asylum policy.

He was among 500 other high-profile figures who signed an open letter in February urging the BBC to re-broadcast a documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone to its streaming service, BBC iPlayer. The documentary was pulled after it emerged that its 13-year-old narrator was the son of a Hamas official.

“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,” he said in his apology on Wednesday.

Prior to Lineker's apology, the BBC's director-general Tim Davie said the broadcaster's reputation is “held by everyone and when someone makes a mistake, it costs us”. He added: “And I think we absolutely need people to be the exemplars of BBC values and follow our social media policies, simple as that."

The Campaign Against Antisemitism had urged Davie to sack Lineker, who is also the co-founder of the hugely successful Goalhanger podcasts, makers of the popular The Rest is History series and its spin-offs about politics, football, entertainment and money.

“As the BBC's highest-paid presenter and owner of a major media enterprise, maybe he knows exactly what he's doing," a spokersperson for the organisation said. "Having looked the other way until now, at this point, it is clear that Mr Lineker's continued association with the BBC is untenable. He must go.”

With agency inputs