BBC considers replacing Gary Lineker with revolving cast of MotD presenters

The BBC is considering not replacing the outgoing Gary Lineker directly as executives instead warm to a possible revolving cast of Match of the Day hosts.

Mark Chapman, Kelly Somers, Gabby Logan, Alex Scott and Kelly Cates are leading candidates for a team of presenters to rotate fronting the BBC One flagship football highlights show.

Chapman had been widely billed as the most likely successor to Lineker, but sources close to talks believe he has concerns about taking on the job full-time. The popular broadcaster and BBC lifer still relishes his Radio 5 Live job as his first love on Saturday afternoons. In recent years, he has also taken on podcast work and EFL Cup coverage on Sky Sports.

No final decision has been made on succession plans, however, after Lineker, the corporation’s best-paid star, confirmed he will step down at the end of the 2024-25 season.

The former England forward, who has presented MotD since 1999, is understood to be content with the terms of his departure, despite apparent tensions with BBC chiefs stretching back at least a year.

He has regularly told friends that, at the age of 63, he was finding the long days of preparation on Saturday for the BBC One show increasingly gruelling. An insider dismissed suggestions from the broadcaster’s culture and media editor that Lineker was being forced out and is said to be leaving “on his own terms”, despite BBC journalist Katie Razzall claiming: “Lineker was open to staying on at Match of the Day, but the BBC did not offer him a new contract for the show.

Lineker’s MotD departure was confirmed on Tuesday after the two parties agreed a new 18-month reduced-rate contract that will see him continue to work on live FA Cup coverage and the 2026 World Cup. The joint statement by the BBC and Lineker left the door open to a potential extension to that deal by not confirming whether he will leave the BBC entirely when the new deal expires.

But even as his £1.35 million salary is slashed, the remarkable success of his Goalhanger company, and The Rest is Football podcast he fronts, will ensure Lineker continues to make millions.

He will also continue to receive BBC pay cheques after executives agreed to host The Rest is Football on the corporation’s hugely popular Sounds app, which has five million users in the UK.

That revenue will be a fraction of his income from commercial podcast outlets, however. Advertisers pay Goalhanger £45 for every 1,000 listens to an advert. He made £125,000 alone during Euro 2024 via other platforms such as Spotify. Telegraph Sport understands the BBC will only be allowed to stream one podcast episode a week, two days after it has already appeared elsewhere and is, as a result, a far less lucrative offering.

Lineker’s The Rest is Football co-hosts Alan Shearer and Micah Richards will continue to work at the BBC for the foreseeable future, however.

Shearer, who relishes co-commentary work in addition to studio analysis, is understood to be in the process of agreeing new terms.

Recently appointed director of sport, Alex Kay-Jelski, will be delighted to retain the big names, having been forced to sack Jermaine Jenas earlier this summer over sexually offensive text messages to women.

Kay-Jelski, who is otherwise known to want a fresh approach towards the corporation’s coverage, said of Lineker’s exit: “Gary is a world-class presenter, and we’re delighted that he’ll lead our coverage of the next World Cup and continue to lead our live coverage of the FA Cup.

“After 25 seasons Gary is stepping down from MotD. We want to thank him for everything he has done for the show, which continues to attract millions of viewers each week. He’ll be hugely missed on the show but we’re so happy he is staying with the BBC to present live football.”

Murphy backs Chapman

The BBC’s statement added: “[Lineker] will continue with the MotD: Top Ten podcast and the BBC will also host the hugely popular The Rest is Football podcast on BBC Sounds.”

Regular Match of the Day 2 presenter Chapman has been backed by pundit Danny Murphy to become Lineker’s main replacement.

“I feel that they’ve got [a candidate],” Murphy told Talksport. “Mark Chapman, who I work with a lot on Sundays. I think he’s a brilliant presenter and very, very knowledgeable on sport and football. Somebody who is ready-made for it. Whether he wants it or not, I don’t know. That’s a different question, you’d have to ask him. But he would be the glaring, obvious choice for me.”

Chapman and Logan did not offer any hints about potential roles in MotD’s future when they addressed the interest in them on Tuesday.

After Chapman’s phone rang during a live recording of the duo’s Sports Agents podcast, Logan joked: “That’s the BBC. Match of the Day.”

Chapman replied: “I tell you what, honestly I don’t know what it’s like for you at the moment. But, bloody hell, I could do with a PA at the moment.”

Meanwhile, Lineker’s friend and colleague Alastair Campbell has said the BBC was wrong to tackle the Match of the Day host for wading into politics.

Relations between Lineker and corporation chiefs are said to have never fully recovered since a row last year around his criticism of the previous Government.

Former Downing Street spin doctor Campbell, who now works for Lineker’s Goalhanger podcast empire, says Lineker will be a “very, very, very hard act to follow” when he leaves.

Kay-Jelski, who succeeded Barbara Slater as BBC director of sport this year, is understood to have played a key role in what sources claim was “ultimately a mutual decision” that Lineker would depart after a final deal taking him to the age of 65.

Campbell, appearing on Radio 4’s Today programme, said it was a “matter for them” as to whether the BBC should have fought harder to stop Lineker departing. However, he said the BBC “got the balance a little bit wrong” in attempting to curb Lineker from voicing his political views on social media.

When asked whether Lineker wanted more freedom to express his views via his podcasts, Campbell said “I don’t know”, but “he’s somebody who thinks about the world, cares about the world”.

“I do think the BBC has got itself into a bad place with actually thinking that people – whether they’re comedians or whether they’re sports presenters – whether they have to be subject to quite the same level of restriction in what they can and can’t say in the political arena.”

Lineker, the former England striker, is lauded as an accomplished broadcaster, but is also an increasingly divisive figure among viewers. Last season, he was taken off air for an episode after a social media message compared the then-Government’s asylum policy to Nazi Germany. However, his co-stars, Shearer and Ian Wright, led a rebellion against the punishment paving a way for Lineker’s return.

Lineker, Campbell says, is “a special case because he’s so well paid and Match of the Day is so important”. “But I think the BBC got the balance a little bit wrong there,” Campbell said, adding: “I think he’ll be a very, very, very hard act to follow.”

Former BBC director general Greg Dyke added that while Lineker will be missed, the show will go on because “people watch Match of the Day for the football”.