GARY Lineker has said the BBC are "obsessed" with trying to please "Daily Mail-type" newspapers.
The former Match of the Day presenter appeared on Louis Theroux's podcast this week where he spoke about being removed from the football highlights programme last year.
After saying he found out about being taken off the show via social media and had "not been told personally first", he went on to criticise the BBC saying it is trying to "placate" people who would "get rid of the licence fee in a heartbeat".
He told the podcast: "I think the BBC's problem in this, and I understand why it happens, is I think they are so obsessed with trying to placate or appease or keep happy the Daily Mail-type newspapers, and they're doing that to people that would get rid of the licence fee in a heartbeat because they're competitors to the BBC.
"I think we're like a marriage with the BBC, we've been together a long time and it was starting to run out of love for each other."
Lineker's departure from the show came after a row following an Instagram post he made about Zionism, which featured a depiction of a rat, historically an antisemitic insult. Lineker apologised and said he did not see the rat visual.
He now hosts The Rest Is Football podcast alongside former footballers Micah Richards and Alan Shearer. This will become a daily TV programme on Netflix during the 2026 World Cup, covering the tournament in the US, Canada, and Mexico.
Lineker has been highly critical of the broadcaster's reporting on Gaza and Palestine, questioning why it was treated differently to the war in Ukraine.
He was also temporarily suspended from the BBC in March 2023 after an impartiality row over comments he made criticising the then Tory government’s new asylum policy.
