1 week Ago By Ayaan Ali
Gary Lineker is set to step down as the presenter of Match of the Day at the end of the season, according to recent reports. He is expected to cover the next FIFA World Cup in the US, Canada, and Mexico but will step back from the broadcaster’s football show at the end of the 2024-25 season. Lineker, 63, has had a long and distinguished career with the BBC , having hosted Match of the Day since 1999.
Over the years, he has become synonymous with the programme, which has made him one of the most recognised faces in British sports broadcasting. In addition to Match of the Day, Lineker has also presented a variety of other sports shows for the BBC , including Football Focus, The FA Cup Highlights, and Sport Relief charity events. His time at the BBC has been marked by controversy, including a retweet on social media calling for Israel to be banned from international sporting events, as well as his suspension after criticising the government's controversial asylum policy.
The post on X, formerly Twitter, by the Palestinian Campaign For The Academic And Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), which he reportedly misread, appealed to the International Olympic Committee, Fifa and all regional and international sports governing bodies to take “an urgent stance”. Speaking to The Guardian about the backlash since the tweet, he confirmed he had “received threats” and said: “It’s not about me. I am not the victim here.
” The former England footballer spoke about the Israel -Hamas conflict and described social media postings on the war as “toxic”. He said: “Everybody I talk to, every single person I know, is going, ‘What? What is happening?’. But the minute you open your mouth – well, not my mouth, but the minute I tweet a little bit – it’s so toxic.
“If you lean to one side or the other, the levels of attack are extraordinary. How could it be controversial to want peace? I just don’t understand it. “You don’t need to be Islamophobic to condemn Hamas, or antisemitic to condemn Israel .
But at the moment it’s just awful. Awful.” He also said he has tried to limit his time spent on social media sites.
“Before, if I was killing time ...
I’d just be trawling through social media, getting irritated and depressed by world news.” He said he has now replaced hours of scrolling with reading “a lot”. “I find it difficult to look at social media,” he added.
“Because I can’t bear looking at little children being killed constantly.” Lineker was temporarily taken off air by the BBC in March 2023 after being instructed to step down following a tweet in which he compared the language used to announce a new government asylum seeker policy to that of 1930s Germany. He told The Guardian he was deliberate with the phrasing of the tweet and said: “I worded it very carefully, I always do.
Anything that is slightly borderline political, I put a lot of thought into.”.
