Gary Lineker is to step down as the presenter of the BBC’s flagship, Salford-based football highlights show Match of the Day at the end of the season.
The news comes after a period of intense speculation over the former England star’s future on the show, with Lineker himself deadpanning on the show: “Hello. Seven games on the way and it’s my final show … before the international break” at the end of October.
Lineker, took over the hotseat from Des Lynam in 1999 and has been an ever-present on football fans’ screens on Saturday nights for a quarter of a century since, is believed to have signed an 18-month contract with the BBC that will cover the next Fifa World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico, but will step back from the broadcaster’s football highlights programme at the end of the 2024-25 season.
BBC News said that an official announcement would be made today after the Sun first broke the story last night, although BBC Sport seemingly didn’t receive the memo, apparently confirming the news on Twitter a day early:
Lineker is one of the corporation’s best-known, and best-paid, presenters, topping the broadcaster’s list of declared salaries for the seventh consecutive time this year with £1.35m PA.
His relationship with his employers had become somewhat strained in recent years though, with sections of the tabloid media regularly jumping on his perceived “wokery” on social media.
Lineker was taken off air by the BBC in March 2023 after writing on X that the language used by the then-Conservative government launching a policy on small boat crossings was “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s”. He was reinstated after several of his colleagues walked out in solidarity. He has been the corporation’s highest paid on-air star for seven consecutive years, with a salary in 2023-24 of £1.35m.
Lineker is unlikely to be out of work for long following his “retirement.” Goalhanger Podcasts, the company he founded in 2019, releases some of the most popular podcasts in the country, including The Rest is Politics, The Rest is Entertainment, The Rest is History and The Rest is Football, which he co-hosts with Match of the Day colleagues Alan Shearer and Micah Richards.
