Gary Lineker only has a number of Match of the Day shows left ahead of his exit from the popular BBC show and has now hinted at the thought process behind the bombshell decision

Gary Lineker has suggested BBC chiefs wanted him to leave Match of the Day(Image: BBC iPlayer/Match of the Day)

Gary Lineker has claimed that BBC chiefs nudged him towards a shock Match of the Day exit. The former England and Barcelona forward has presented the show for nearly 25 years.

With his current contract up at the end of the current campaign, it was announced that Lineker would be handing over the reins. There are just a handful of episodes left in Lineker’s Match of the Day career, although he will be continue to front the BBC’s coverage of the 2026 World Cup and FA Cup matches.

Ahead of his official exit from the flagship programme, Lineker has suggested that BBC chiefs had made their feelings clear on Lineker leaving the show. Speaking in an interview with the channel, he said: “It’s time [to leave]. I’ve done it for a long time. It’s been brilliant. It’s been great.”

He then added: “Well, perhaps they want me to leave. There was the sense of that, yes. I’ve got another year and I’m going to do the FA Cup and World Cup and they’re taking our podcast now, the Match of the Day Top Ten, as well as The Rest Is Football that I do with Alan [Shearer] and Micah [Richards].”

Lineker then suggested he would have liked to have stayed had he been offered the opportunity. He added: “I always wanted one more contract, and I was umm-ing and ahh-ing about whether to do three years [more] and I think woth the way the rights issue comes up, it didn’t. I’m not saying they didn’t want me to do one more contract, they did because they’ve given me one more contract.

“In the end, I think there was a feeling that, because it was a new rights period, it was a chance to change the programme. I think it was their preference that I didn’t do Match of the Day for one more year, so they could bring in new people. So it’s slightly unusual that I would do the FA Cup and the World Cup, but to be honest, it’s a scenario that suits me perfectly.”

As one of the leading broadcasters over the past two decades, there was expected to be a scramble for Lineker’s signature from rival broadcasters. But the ex-Leicester and Tottenham striker has suggested that his time on the small screen is potentially over for now, with Lineker at the forefront of a successful podcast empire.

Gary Lineker has spoken in an interview with Amol Rajan(Image: BBC iPlayer/Match of the Day)

He said: “It won’t be more telly. I think I’ll step back from that [TV] now. I might appear on something or come backand chat to you in 20 years’ time if I’m still alive. No politics, no. I’m not interested in politics, I’ve never had a view [chuckles].

“I think I’ll probably focus more on the podcast world, because it’s such a fun business and it’s just been so incredible but I’ll travel a bit more. I’ll have a bit more time, weekends off and more time for trips away.”

The BBC took their time in identifying Lineker’s eventual Match of the Day successor, eventually deciding to split the role between three different candidates. Kelly Cates, Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan are all going to represent a three-person presenting team starting from next season.

There are just five gameweeks of the 2024/25 Premier League season left, with Lineker having as many episodes left. The campaign has already been rotten for the 64-year-old having seen boyhood club Leicester suffer from a disastrous relegation.

Lineker also criticised the change the BBC made to its rules governing the social media use of its employees, in the wake of his suspension. The former England striker insists he was right to tweet in the way he did after he compared the language used in the UK government’s immigration policy to that of ‘Germany in the 1930s’ – but says he wouldn’t do the same again given the fallout.

Staff working in news and current affairs have always been expected to remain impartial on social media platforms, there had been questions over how much the rules extended to BBC personalities in other areas such as entertainment and sport – such as Lineker and Match of the Day colleagues like Shearer.

Gary Lineker has voiced his concerns over the BBC(Image: BBC)

Lineker has now taken aim at the changes, questioning why the BBC panders to people that “hate the BBC”.

“The impartiality rules were for people in news and current affairs. They have subsequently changed,” he told Amol Rajan in a new interview. “But that left people like me, who has always given his honest opinions about things. Then they suddenly changed them and you have to go, ‘Oh, I’ve got to be impartial now’. It doesn’t make any sense. Why worry about the people who don’t like you. This is the mistake the BBC makes.

“The BBC tries to appease the people that hate the BBC. The people who always attack the licence fee. They worry far too much about that, rather than worrying about the people who love the BBC.

“Why shouldn’t I have an opinion on things? I’ve always been strong on humanitarian issues and always will be, and that’s me. The goalposts were massively moved because it was never an issue until, suddenly, this point. It was always stipulated in the BBC guidelines that in terms of impartiality, it was for people who work in news and current affairs.

“I am very, very thoughtful about what I say. They took me off air and it was a silly overreaction.”

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