BBC "want me to leave" claims Gary Lineker - when is his last Match of the Day programme?

At the end of the Premier League season - which is now just a couple of months away - Lineker will step away from hosting the programme, having announced his departure last year. The 64-year-old outgoing presenter will leave the corporation for good after fronting its coverage of the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Lineker, who has worked as a presenter on the highlights programme since 1999, told the BBC’s Amol Rajan: “I’ve done it for a long time, it’s been brilliant, it’s been great - well, perhaps they want me to leave. There was a sense of that.

“I always wanted one more contract. It was their preference that I didn’t do Match of the Day for one more year so they could bring in new people, so it’s slightly unusual that I would do the FA Cup and the World Cup, but, to be honest, it’s a scenario that suits me perfectly.”

A trio of presenters – Kelly Cates, Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan – will replace him on Match of the Day. Lineker was also grilled about the furore in March 2023 over his tweet comparing the then British government’s asylum policy with 1930s Germany.

The former England striker was briefly taken off air, and other sports journalists and presenters walked out in solidarity, before he returned to fronting the programme.

Lineker said: “I don’t regret saying them publicly, because I was right - what I said, it was accurate - so not at all in that sense.

“Would I, in hindsight, do it again? No, I wouldn’t, because of all the nonsense that came with it; it was a ridiculous overreaction that was just a reply to someone that was being very rude. And I wasn’t particularly rude back.

“But I wouldn’t do it again because of all the kerfuffle that followed, and I love the BBC, and I didn’t like the damage that it did to the BBC - but do I regret it and do I think it was the wrong thing to do? No.”

The presenter also said the BBC should “have ignored it, and it would have been fine”, and called the corporation “silly” for its “overreaction” in taking him off air.

His tweets, which sparked a row about BBC presenters expressing political views on social media, led to enhanced rules for BBC flagship presenters, including a ban on making attacks on political parties.

The final set of fixtures this Premier League season will be on Sunday, May 25, when all 20 teams will be in action. Lineker’s final appearance at the helm of Match of the Day will be that same evening.