Speculation about who will replace Gary Lineker as the presenter of Match of the Day has begun in earnest, after the BBC confirmed the former England striker would step down at the end of the season.
After weeks of tense negotiations, the BBC confirmed earlier reports that Lineker will step back from its flagship football highlights programme at the end of the 2024-25 season. However, he will stay with the broadcaster to cover the FA Cup in 2025-26 and the 2026 Fifa World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico.
But in a major coup for the 63-year-old – who co-founded the successful Goalhanger podcast empire in 2019 – the BBC will host his The Rest is Football podcast on the BBC Sounds app, which attracts more than 5 million users in the UK.
Lineker took over the Match of the Day (MOTD) chair from Des Lynam in 1999, and has been a presence on football fans’ screens on Saturday nights for 25 years. The presenter, whose contract expires next May, has been in negotiations with the BBC for several weeks.
While his departure was presented as a mutual decision, the Guardian understands the presenter – who has been the BBC’s highest-paid on-air star for the past seven years – was willing to discuss his £1.35m a year earnings, but the BBC decided the new arrangement was a better deal for licence fee payers.
When asked on BBC Breakfast in August about leaving MOTD – which can routinely attract 4 million viewers – Lineker said it had been a privilege to present the show for the past 25 years and his future would depend “on how long they want me”.
On Tuesday, in a 21-word statement that did not mention his more than two decades on MOTD, Lineker said he was “delighted to continue my long association with BBC Sport and would like to thank all those who made this happen”.
Paying tribute to a “world class presenter”, Alex Kay-Jelski, the new director of BBC Sport, said: “We’re delighted that he’ll lead our coverage of the next World Cup and continue to lead our live coverage of the FA Cup.”
He added: “After 25 seasons Gary is stepping down from MOTD. We want to thank him for everything he has done for the show, which continues to attract millions of viewers each week. He’ll be hugely missed on the show but we’re so happy he is staying with the BBC to present live football.”
A source at the BBC said the future of the presenter had been decided mutually, but said it was common knowledge that the BBC did not have the resources of previous years. “It’s a deal that’s good for licence fee payers and it’s a deal for the audiences who can still watch Gary during the World Cup – everyone wins,” they said.
Attention has turned to who will replace Lineker, with programme viewers comparing his post-announcement tenure to that of a lame-duck football club manager remaining in post, with one joking: “Will the boys even put the effort in knowing the boss is leaving at the end of the season?”
Mark Chapman, who has hosted the sister programme, Match of the Day 2, for more than a decade, is considered to be the frontrunner, with the BBC stalwart sports presenter Gabby Logan and the Football Focus presenter Alex Scott also in the running.
Lineker has courted controversy during his tenure at MOTD, and was taken off air by the BBC in March 2023 after criticising the language used by ministers when discussing the government’s asylum policy. But in a move that appeared to demonstrate his sway at the BBC, he was reinstated after some of his colleagues pulled out of shows in solidarity.
On Tuesday, fellow broadcasters speculated that the row had made it easier for the BBC to decide against renewing Lineker’s contract – which comes as the BBC continues with a £500m cost-cutting drive that has led to hundreds of job being slashed and flagship news programmes reduced.
“You have to earn contracts,” said one broadcaster. “And if you’re making life difficult for your bosses don’t be upset when you don’t get your contract renewed. Don’t be surprised when there’s someone who can do it just as well, but for the cost of fewer licence fees.”
