Gary Lineker to quit Match of the Day at end of season and leave BBC after 2026 World Cup

Gary Lineker is to quit Match of the Day at the end of the season and will leave the BBC following the men’s World Cup in 2026.

The 63-year-old has signed a reduced rate 18-month extension with the broadcaster that includes FA Cup coverage and will conclude at the next World Cup, which takes place in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

However, he will relinquish his role on weekly Premier League highlights show Match of the Day when his existing deal expires at the end of the 2024-25 season next May.

Lineker’s departure, having hosted the BBC’s flagship football show since 1999, had appeared likely for weeks but will be announced officially on Tuesday.

He entered negotiations with the BBC over a new contract in October, and is understood to have now accepted reduced terms on his current deal which makes him the best paid presenter at the BBC. Alex 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.

Senior figures at the BBC had previously expressed views privately that Lineker’s £1.35 million-a-year salary was seen as “excessive” while the corporation is under pressure to cut costs elsewhere.

Telegraph Sport has confirmed Lineker’s plans with multiple insiders after The Sun first reported he would leave earlier on Monday. Lineker had already cast doubt on his BBC future in recent months by hinting he could focus on his podcast empire full-time. The BBC and Lineker have yet to comment on his plans.

Newsnight revealed it had spoken to Lineker and that he said did not want to come onto Monday night’s show, adding: “It’s only TV.”

Told he was an institution, he was said to have joked: “I’ll be in an institution soon.”

One BBC source told The Sun that Kay-Jelski is plotting to bring in new faces and reduce the wage bill in his department. “It’s one of the industry’s worst kept secrets that the new BBC director of sport Alex Kay-Jelski and Gary aren’t exactly close,” the source added. “The former is very keen to make his mark by bringing in new faces, and slashing wage bills.”

Mark Chapman will be among the frontrunners to replace Lineker as the BBC’s lead anchor. Alex Scott, Gabby Logan and Sky Sports’ Kelly Cates are are also in contention. Jermaine Jenas, another one-time potential successor, was sacked by the BBC in the summer by Kay-Jelski over sexually offensive messages to women.

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.

Since replacing Des Lynam as the main anchor for BBC’s football coverage, Lineker has fronted back-to-back World Cups, European Championships and BBC Sports Personality of the Year shows. In 2016, he also kept his promise to introduce the opening Match of the Day of the new season in his underpants to fulfil a promise he made if former club Leicester City won the Premier League.

Lineker’s departure has appeared increasingly likely after an email was previously leaked purportedly quoting BBC director general Tim Davie and Kay-Jelski confirming Lineker’s imminent departure. The Corporation refused to confirm or deny whether the email was genuine or not. However, when asked by the Daily Mail outside his home about his future last month, Lineker told reporters to “f--- off”.

However, speaking to Esquire magazine, Lineker said he may refuse to sign a new contract because he was “getting old” and would soon have to “slow down somewhere”.

Asked if he would be tempted to make a go of broadcast work in the United States, Lineker said: “I could do. Whether that will be the case I don’t know. At some point, I have to slow down somewhere… I’m getting old.”

His multi-million-pound Goalhanger Podcasts, which includes the increasingly-lucrative The Rest Is Football, has become a major success for Lineker in recent years.

Confirming Lineker will leave after the World Cup, a BBC source told The Sun: “Gary absolutely adores Match of the Day, and has been incredibly happy at the BBC. But he has been at the helm since 1999, and by the time he leaves, he will have been at the Beeb for 30 years. He wants to leave on a high – and if England win the World Cup, it doesn’t get much higher.”

The source added that negotiations about Lineker’s future had been held over the “past six weeks, and finally a deal has been struck that everyone is pleased with”.

The source claimed that the news of Lineker’s looming departure would “send shockwaves around the corporation”.

Friends of Lineker see the deal as a victory for him in a potential power struggle with the BBC’s new director of sport. Lineker had been reportedly exploring options with other broadcasters since last year.

He has not been involved in the BBC’s new Champions League highlights show, with Chapman and Logan selected as its main presenters.

Lineker has been the BBC’s highest-paid on-air talent for seven consecutive years. The BBC denied last month that an announcement was pending.

A spokeswoman for the BBC declined to comment. Lineker’s representative also declined to comment.