Gary Lineker hints at push from Match of the Day after BBC impartiality row

Gary Lineker has told Amol Rajan he had "a sense" the BBC wanted him to quit Match of the Day in an episode of Amol Rajan Interviews set to air on BBC Two on Tuesday evening. Former England footballer Lineker forged a hugely successful and lucrative career in sports broadcasting for the BBC after retiring as a player and has been the popular face of Match of the Day since 1999. However, in November he announced that he would be stepping down from the role , following a string of impartiality controversies in recent years.

Lineker will stay on to present BBC coverage of next season's FA Cup as well as the 2026 World Cup, but said of leaving the main Match of the Day programme "perhaps they want me to leave". Amol Rajan Interviews: Gary Lineker also covers the impartiality controversies he has been caught up in at the BBC, his career as a player, and the heartbreak of seeing his son go through treatment for leukaemia as a baby. What did Gary Lineker say about leaving Match of the Day? Lineker's chat with Rajan has hit headlines for his candid answer to the question: "Why are you leaving Match Of The Day?" The footballing legend replied: "It's time.



I've done it for a long time. It's been brilliant, it's been great." Rajan pushed him on why it was time, pointing out that he was still at the top of his broadcasting game and that viewing figures were looking healthy.

Lineker said: "Well, perhaps they (BBC) want me to leave." Rajan asked: "Is that a sense you've got?" and he replied: "There's a sense of that, yeah, there's a sense of that." He continued: "I always wanted one more contract.

I was umming and ahhing over whether to do another three years...

I'm not saying they didn't want me to do one more contract - they did because they've given me one more contract. In the end, there was a feeling that because it was a new rights period so it was a chance to change the programme, I think it was their preference that I didn't do Match Of The Day for one more year so they could bring in new people. "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.

" Rajan offered the response from the BBC to Lineker's claims, saying: "The BBC didn't comment on whether it wanted Gary Lineker to leave Match of the Day but it did say that he's a world class presenter and that it's delighted he'll lead coverage of the next World Cup and continue to lead coverage of the FA Cup." What did Gary Lineker say about his BBC impartiality controversy? Lineker's departure from Match of the Day follows a turbulent previous couple of years after he posted on X (then Twitter) in 2023 criticising the government's asylum policy. Commenting on then home secretary Suella Braverman's plan to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, he called it "beyond awful", "immeasurably cruel", and said that it used "language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s".

His comments led to the BBC suspending him from hosting Match of the Day while it investigated what it claimed was a breach of the corporation's guidelines on remaining impartial. Lineker's co-hosts Ian Wright and Alan Shearer chose to sit out the show too in solidarity with him. But Lineker told Rajan of his social media posts: "I don't regret saying them publicly because it was right what I said, it was accurate.

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 to something that was just a reply to someone that was being very rude. I wasn't particularly rude back, I just stated a couple of facts about the language that was being used.

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, having to take the show off telly. "I wouldn't do it again, but do I regret doing it, do I think it was the wrong thing to do, no." He argued that the impartiality rules at the time only applied to news and current affairs staff, and that he was a freelancer.

"Why shouldn't I have an opinion on things?" he added. "I'm a bloody footballer who's turned into a sports presenter." Talking about his suspension from the programme in 2023, he claimed that he had learned the news through a BBC news alert before he was told personally.

He said: "It got to the point where I was saying to the BBC just ignore it, it'll be fine...

It would have been fine and gone away. They didn't ignore it and in the end they took me off air, which was silly. It was a silly overreaction and I think they accept that now.

" Lineker admitted he had been in tears over Wright and Shearer also announcing that they would stay off air in support of him: "That doesn't happen, that show of support. It was incredible, it meant so much." More recently, Lineker added his name to calls to reinstate documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone to iPlayer.

He told Rajan: "Can I be impartial? I know where I stand on this, it's more important than whatever is going on at the BBC. The mass murder of thousands of children is probably something that we should have a little opinion on." Gary Lineker's post-Match of the Day plans Asked what his next career move would be, Lineker revealed: "It won't be more telly.

" His Goalhanger Podcasts company makes shows including The Rest Is Football, The Rest Is Entertainment and The Rest Is Politics, and he said: "I think I'll concentrate more on the podcast world because it's been so fun." Talking about his last career pivot from footballing to broadcasting, he said: "I never considered being a manager at any point. I didn't even like training, let alone watching other people train.

" Lineker added that having to broadcast live after England team losses was "horrible", saying: "I never ever prepare a closing line for that, ever. Because sport's about the moment, the only thing you can pre-write is the build up to the game." Gary Lineker looks back at son's leukaemia treatment In 1991, Lineker's eldest son George was diagnosed with leukaemia as a baby.

While he made a full recovery, Lineker told Rajan that the experience of watching his son be so ill had changed him forever. He said: "I'll never forget it, they put him on a little bed and took his nappy off and felt under his arms and his groin. They looked at each other and said, 'I'm sorry but I think this is something much more serious'.

"Two or three times we were told he might not make it through the night. It was an incredibly dark experience, I mean it was frightening. I used to have dreams about him being in a little white coffin.

It was horrible." George spent seven months in hospital while he underwent chemotherapy and Lineker said: "I was always quite cold when I was young, I had this purpose and goals..

.I was encapsulated in my sport and what I wanted to achieve. Children change you anyway, but an experience like that.

..it's easy to say it gives you more perspective, of course it does.

I think it changed me. I think it made me more empathetic, generally." Amol Rajan Interviews: Gary Lineker airs on BBC Two at 7pm tonight and is available on BBC iPlayer.

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