Gary Lineker accused of ‘shameful contempt for women’ after support for anti-Israel article

Gary Lineker has been accused of “shameful contempt for women” after expressing support for an article attacking Israel in the Guardian newspaper.

Lineker posted “This” on X alongside an article by sports writer Jonathan Liew headlined ‘Sport may be a blunt tool of social change, but it’s time to take a stand against Israel’.

Women’s sport campaigners have reacted with outrage at the political post which comes as he ignores their calls to speak up against football’s failure to stop biological males playing in the women’s game.

The BBC’s best-paid presenter, who steps down from Match of the Day next summer, failed to respond to hundreds of requests to address the issue – including from nine-time Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova and Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies – after inviting potential questions for his podcast a fortnight ago.

However, on Friday Lineker waded into another febrile political debate as he endorsed the thoughts of his favoured journalist Liew, who had written “even if sport is a blunt and pointless tool of social change, it must nonetheless be deployed” against Israel. “Because there remains – even in this warped, f----- fairground mirror of a world – a thing called right and a thing called wrong,” says the article.

In response to the Guardian link posted on Lineker’s X account, Mara Yamauchi, who holds the fifth-fastest marathon time for a British woman in history, wrote: “I can’t believe you are promoting Liew who thinks every female Olympic gold won by a man would be fine. Thousands asked you to cover males in the F category in your podcast. You didn’t. I used to respect you. Now I see you are yet another man who has contempt for females. Shameful!”

‘When is it time to stand up for women, Gary?’

Emma Hilton, a developmental biologist and Sex Matters trustee, added: “When is it time to stand up for women, Gary? Liew said that if every podium place in an Olympic competition was taken by a transwoman, that would be inspiring. You OK with that? You had about a thousand people asking you to talk about males in women’s football and you’ve said, by my count, precisely nothing.”

Liew has himself previously come under attack from women’s sport campaigners, having expressed concern over what he perceived as attacks on the transgender community in an article for The Independent in 2019. “Let’s say the floodgates do open,” he wrote. “Let’s say transgender athletes pour into women’s sport, and let’s say, despite the flimsy and poorly-understood relationship between testosterone and elite performance, they dominate everything they touch. They sweep up grand-slam tennis titles and cycling world championships. They monopolise the Olympics. They fill our football and cricket and netball teams. Why would that be bad? Really? Imagine the power of a trans child or teenager seeing a trans athlete on the top step of the Olympic podium. In a way, it would be inspiring.”

Lineker spoke this summer on his The Rest is Football podcast of his admiration for Liew’s journalism. The former England striker also previously declared “cut out the divisive nonsense” as he expressed agreement in 2022 with former defence secretary Grant Shapps who suggested that transgender people should “be able to get on and live their lives”.

When he came under attack from campaigners at the time, Lineker wrote on social media that his comment referred to “the war on woke and not any specific subject”.

However, he has yet to address the issue at all this year amid mounting concern at an alleged absence of Football Association safeguards. Many critics have cited The Telegraph’s coverage of a 17-year-old girl banned for questioning during a grass-roots match whether an opponent was “a man”.

Lineker, who was at the centre of a storm last year over his tweets about the previous Government, steps down from the broadcaster’s flagship show at the end of this season. He will continue presenting FA Cup coverage and will also front the World Cup 2026 coverage as part of an 18-month reduced-rate contract extension, however.