Departing Match of the Day host Gary Lineker is set to quit the BBC entirely, meaning that he won't form part of their 2026 World Cup coverage.
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Ex-England international courting controversySocial media activity has posed problemsReady to sever professional ties with the BBCFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?
Former England international Lineker has courted controversy of late through a number of statements made on the podcasts that he fronts and through his social media channels. A recent post on Instagram has caused another storm, and as a result his exit seems set to be brought forward.
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Lineker recently shared a post about Zionism that included an illustration of a rat, which is historically considered to be an antisemitic insult. The 64-year-old apologised and deleted the image in question, claiming to have not intentionally shared the image.
WHAT THE BBC SAID
BBC director general Tim Davie did, however, state that: “The BBC's reputation is held by everyone, and when someone makes a mistake, it costs us.” It is now being claimed, by the themselves, that Lineker’s position may have become “untenable”.
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He was temporarily suspended in March 2023 after becoming caught up in an impartiality row after claiming in another social post that the language used in UK government asylum policy was “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s”.
