With the confirmation of his Match of the Day exit, what are Gary Lineker’s most controversial posts?
The BBC announced on November 11 that the presenter would be leaving his role at the end of the 2024/25 season. However, Lineker will stay on to present FA Cup and the FIFA World Cup coverage in 2026.
During his tenure with the broadcaster – which will have spanned over a quarter of a century – the former football star has not gone without well-publicised quarrels.
At the time of his departure, Lineker will still be the BBC’s highest-paid presenter. Something of which has kept him in the headlines alongside his often controversial use of social media.
Qatar World Cup 2022
Prior to the Qatar World Cup in 2022, one of Gary Lineker’s most controversial posts was aimed at then-foreign secretary James Cleverly. Lineker really didn’t hold back.
Cleverly explained how LGBT+ football fans should display ‘respect for the host nation’ – whereby homosexuality is still illegal. This prompted Lineker’s fiery response.
“Whatever you do, don’t do anything Gay. Is that the message?” The 63-year-old said is response to Cleverly. Once the tournament started, Lineker opened the BBC’s broadcast coverage with a series of subtle jibes about Qatar.
The Tory Migrant Policy
In March 2023, Gary Lineker posted on X, formerly Twitter, about his displeasure and dismay regarding a tweet on the Tory migrant policy.
Lineker has regularly expressed his support for a liberal approach to UK border controls. He has also shared similar opinions about a second EU referendum. Now, here comes the prickly part.
The MOTD presenter called the government’s migrant policy ‘immeasurably cruel’ and compared the language around it to 1930s Nazi Germany. The BBC went as far as removing him before he was later reinstated.
There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s, and I’m out of order?
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) March 7, 2023
Good heavens, this is beyond awful. https://t.co/f0fTgWXBwp
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) March 7, 2023
BBC Journalist Sewage Row
When Gary Lineker posted about sewage being pumped into the sea in August 2022, this prompted a fiery response from BBC journalist Neil Henderson.
He questioned whether Lineker had held a seperate contract which allowed him to breach the BBC’s impartiality rules. Lineker replied: “As a politician how could you ever, under any circumstances, bring yourself to vote for pumping sewage into our seas? Unfathomable!”
Shortly after, Henderson apologised for his tweets and deleted the content. Using social media to criticise colleagues is strictly off limits, the BBC explains.
Jonathan Agnew Conservative Party Debate
Six years ago, BBC Cricket presenter Steve Agnew was on the receiving end of one of Gary Lineker’s most controversial posts. The pair began an online argument surrounding Brexit and the Tories.
Lineker bemoaned: “Imagine how hopeless you’d have to be to still be behind the Tory party in the polls. The absolute state of our politics.”
Agnew hit back and suggested as the ‘face of BBC Sport,’ he should keep his political views to himself. All this done was prompt Lineker to fire back saying he is the ‘face of his own Twitter account’ and will say what he wants. Ouch.
Imagine how hopeless you’d have to be to still be behind the Tory party in the polls. The absolute state of our politics.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) December 12, 2018
Israel International Sporting Ban
Amid the war in Gaza, Gary Lineker came under fire after he ‘accidentally’ retweeted a post that called for Israel to be banned from international football as well as all other major sporting events.
The tweet came from The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) which Lineker later deleted at the start of 2024.
Speaking to the Guardian at the time, he said: “If you lean to one side or the other, the levels of attack are extraordinary. How could it be controversial to want peace? I just don’t understand it.”
