Gary Lineker: BBC star apologises over deleted Instagram post featuring rat in anti-Zionist video

In a statement, the BBC football pundit said he "apologised unreservedly", saying: "On Instagram I reposted material which I have since learned contained offensive references. I very much regret these references.”

"I would never knowingly share anything antisemitic. It goes against everything I believe in." The Match of the Day presenter said he deleted the post "as soon as I became aware of the issue".

Lineker shared the post, originally from the group Palestine Lobby, was titled “Zionism explained in two minutes” and sparked accusations of antisemitism online, as the symbol is historically used in antisemitic propaganda.

His agent told the BBC the presenter “immediately deleted the post when he learned about the image’s symbolism, which he had previously not appreciated.”

The use of rats in the video was especially controversial due to its historic use in Nazi-era depictions of Jews as disease-carrying vermin, a trope long associated with antisemitic rhetoric.

The backlash was swift and widespread, with several users on X (formerly Twitter) accusing the broadcaster of bigotry and demanding accountability, after he posted a tweet about his podcast programme called ‘The Rest is Football’.

“You are a disgusting anti-Semite. You are a moral coward,” wrote one user, while another said, “We are proud Jews and proud Zionists. We are not rats and never will be. There is absolutely no excuse for that vile emoji… You need to issue a sincere apology to every Jewish/Zionist.”

The Campaign Against Antisemitism has called for Lineker’s dismissal from the BBC. In a statement, the charity said: “Gary Lineker really has the worst luck when it comes to campaigning for his causes without aligning himself with extremists and antisemites.

“Not only does this video deliberately misrepresent Zionism, the belief that Jews have the same right to self-determination as everyone else, but it adds a rat emoji in doing so.”

“Perhaps Mr Lineker is not as naive or accident-prone as he might like us to believe. As the BBC’s highest-paid presenter and owner of a major media enterprise, maybe he knows exactly what he’s doing. We will be submitting a complaint to the BBC… It is clear that Mr Lineker’s continued association with the BBC is untenable. He must go.”

Asked about the row on Tuesday, BBC director general Tim Davie said: “The BBC’s reputation is held by everyone and when someone makes a mistake, it costs us,” he said during an event at The Lowry in Salford. “And I think we absolutely need people to be the exemplars of BBC values and follow our social media policies, simple as that.”

This is not the first time Lineker has clashed with BBC leadership over social media activity. In March 2023, he was temporarily suspended after breaching impartiality rules by criticising the UK government’s asylum policy.

More recently, he was among a group of high-profile figures who signed a letter urging the BBC to reinstate the controversial documentary Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone, later pulled from BBC iPlayer after it emerged the film’s narrator was the son of a Hamas official.

Although Lineker stepped down from presenting Match of the Day last year, he remains a key figure in the BBC’s coverage of the World Cup and FA Cup, and runs a successful podcast company, Goalhanger.