Gary Lineker was forced out as Match of the Day host, suggests BBC media editor

Gary Lineker was forced out as host of Match of the Day after the BBC refused to offer him a new contract to anchor the Premier League highlights show, the broadcaster’s culture and media editor has suggested.

Lineker’s departure at the end of the 2024-25 Premier League season was confirmed on Tuesday after the two parties agreed a new 18-month contract that will see the former England footballer remain on the broadcaster’s live FA Cup coverage and front the 2026 World Cup.

But the corporation’s culture and media editor Katie Razzall has revealed: “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 spoke for the first time since his exit was revealed in a short statement that read: “I’m delighted to continue my long association with BBC Sport and would like to thank all those who made this happen.”

Lineker’s departure announcement comes after six weeks of talks with recently appointed director of sport Alex Kay-Jelski who is known to want a fresh approach towards the corporation’s coverage along with a reduction in salaries.

Lineker’s lucrative The Rest Is Football podcast, which he hosts alongside Match of the Day pundits Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, will also now feature on BBC Sounds as part of the new agreement.

“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,” Kay-Jelski, the former editor-in-chief of The Athletic, said.

“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.”

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.”

Chapman backed to become new face

The exit triggers a race to replace Lineker, who was the BBC’s highest-paid staff member on £1.35 million a year under his existing contract. Current Match of the Day 2 presenter Mark Chapman has been backed to become the new face of Match of the Day and is believed to be the preferred candidate among the majority of staff at the BBC, with pundit Danny Murphy leading the calls for him to be appointed.

“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.”

Campbell: ‘BBC has got itself into a bad place’

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 the BBC after the 2026 World Cup.

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 podcast empire, 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, Alan 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.”

Dyke: ‘The show will go on’

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”.

“It’s a big loss, but life moves on. Match of the Day will continue, while having a new presenter, just as when Des Lynam left and Gary Lineker took over from him 20 years ago’, Dyke said.

“He’s become a big presenter and a big personality and a very good performer for the BBC, but life moves on. Presenters don’t stay forever.

“In the end, people watch Match of the Day for the football. I was at ITV when he first became a TV personality and it’s fair to say he wasn’t a great presenter in those days, but he grew into the job and he’s been brilliant for the BBC. He’s without doubt the outstanding sports presenter of his time.

“I heard it was by mutual consent. But we all know how much he earns. He’s very expensive and the BBC is in difficulties financially. It would be a saving on the sports budget which it could use elsewhere. I don’t know if he was offered a new contract or not.

“Whether this is anything to do with [impartiality], I don’t know. It was one of the few times I disagreed with the BBC since I left – I thought, he was a sports presenter, therefore what he was saying as a sports presenter was irrelevant. It might have been a thought in the mind of whoever took the decision.”