A history of Gary Lineker’s most controversial posts – from Rwanda and Brexit to Gaza
Gary Lineker, the BBC’s highest-paid on-air presenter, is to leave the corporation in a matter of days.
The Match Of The Day host will step away from the broadcaster at the end of this month, with his last appearance expected on 25 May, the last day of the Premier League season.
His exit comes after he “apologised unreservedly” for sharing a social media post that featured a rat – used in Nazi propaganda to dehumanise Jewish people – and said he would “never knowingly share anything antisemitic”.
It was the latest controversial post by the 64-year-old, who has found himself at the centre of several rows over his social media usage, most of which involve him sharing his political views, which go against the BBC’s rules on impartiality.
In a statement on Monday, Lineker said: “I care deeply about the game, and about the work I’ve done with the BBC over many years. As I’ve said, I would never consciously repost anything antisemitic – it goes against everything I stand for.
“However, I recognise the error and upset that I caused, and reiterate how sorry I am. Stepping back now feels like the responsible course of action.”
Here is a round-up of the pundit’s most contentious comments as he prepares to leave the BBC.
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Gary Lineker to leave BBC immediately
Gaza documentary
Although not via social media, earlier this year, Lineker was one of 500 media personalities who condemned the BBC for pulling the documentary Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone after it emerged the child narrator, Abdullah, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who had worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.
In an open letter addressed to BBC director general Tim Davie, chairman Samir Shah and outgoing chief content officer Charlotte Moore, Lineker joined hundreds of TV and film professionals and journalists who called the decision to remove the documentary “politically motivated censorship”.
The presenter later said the BBC had “capitulated”, adding that he did not see Abdullah as an issue, and maintaining that the corporation should not have admitted to “a number of serious failings in their commissioning and editorial processes”.
The BBC admitted the documentary’s failings were “a dagger to the heart” of the corporation’s impartiality.
Tory migrant policy
In March 2023, Lineker called a Conservative government policy on migration “immeasurably cruel” and compared the language around it to 1930s Germany.
Hitting out at a video of former home secretary Suella Braverman, where she unveiled the Illegal Migration Bill and claimed the UK was being “overwhelmed” by migrants, Lineker wrote on social media: “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.”
His comments sent politicians, pundits and social media platform X into a spin.
As a result, Lineker was removed from his duties as Match Of The Day presenter after claims he had breached their impartiality guidelines.
He later returned to the presenting role after the row prompted a boycott by his fellow football pundits and commentators, hitting TV and radio coverage across the BBC.
Lineker has been consistently vocal on the issue of migration. In 2020 the former England footballer welcomed refugee Rasheed Baluch into his Surrey home.
Mr Baluch, who was from Pakistan, stayed with the presenter for weeks, and spoke out in the pundit’s defence in 2023, describing him as a “very sympathetic, caring and human loving man”.
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From March 2023: Gary Lineker stands by social media post
‘4 chaps Shapps’
Criticising former defence secretary Grant Shapps in December 2023, Lineker posted photos of the politician – who lost his seat in last year’s general election – along with different names he has been accused of using in the past.
It was in response to Mr Shapps defending the government’s Rwanda scheme. The politician said Lineker should stick to football and stop “meddling” in other matters.
Lineker replied on social media, saying: “A tad rich coming from someone who can’t even stick to one name. 4 chaps Shapps.”
Chair of the BBC Mr Shah said at the time the post breached the corporation’s guidelines.
Brexit and Tories
Lineker was a vocal opponent of Brexit and in 2018 backed the campaign for another EU referendum, saying Brexit felt like it was “going very wrong indeed”.
At the time, a BBC source told Sky News that Lineker’s position as a freelance broadcaster, and a presenter who does not front news or politics programmes, meant he was clear of the corporation’s rules on impartiality.
As well as voicing his Brexit opinions, Lineker bemoaned “the absolute state of our politics”, saying “imagine how hopeless you’d have to be to still be behind the Tory party in the polls”.
BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew hit back, criticising Lineker for speaking out on politics.
He posted on X: “Gary. You are the face of BBC Sport. Please observe BBC editorial guidelines and keep your political views, whatever they are and whatever the subject, to yourself. I’d be sacked if I followed your example. Thanks.”
Lineker made a barbed reply: “Jonathan, I’m the face of my own Twitter account. I’ll continue to tweet what I like and if folk disagree with me then so be it.”
Russian donors
In February 2022, Lineker tweeted about the Conservative Party taking money from “Russian donors”.
Retweeting a story about the then foreign secretary Liz Truss urging football teams to boycott the Champions League final in Russia, he added: “And her party will hand back their donations from Russian donors?”
The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) upheld a complaint and said Lineker’s post “did not meet the BBC’s editorial standards on impartiality”.
The ECU said Lineker was “one of the BBC’s highest profile stars” and said while not being required to uphold the same high standards of impartiality as its journalists, he had an “additional responsibility” because of his profile.
“We expect these individuals to avoid taking sides on party political issues or political controversies and to take care when addressing public policy matters,” the ruling said.
Row over sewage
A senior BBC journalist questioned Lineker’s commitment to the BBC’s impartiality rules after the presenter posted on social media about sewage in August 2022.
At the time, Lineker wrote on social media: “As a politician how could you ever, under any circumstances, bring yourself to vote for pumping sewage into our seas? Unfathomable!”
BBC journalist Neil Henderson asked Lineker whether he had a contract allowing him to breach BBC impartiality, writing: “The BBC lives or dies by its impartiality. If you can’t abide it, get off it.”
He subsequently apologised to the former footballer and deleted the tweets. Under the BBC’s social media rules, criticising colleagues is off-limits.
Read more:
Who are Match Of The Day’s new presenters?
Qatar World Cup
Lineker opened the BBC’s coverage of the 2022 Qatar World Cup with a scathing critique of the host country’s record on human rights and treatment of migrant workers.
The segment analysed the decision to award the tournament to Qatar amid corruption allegations and brought in pundits to discuss workers’ rights and discrimination against LGBT people.
Former BBC journalist Emily Maitlis – who was once found to have breached impartiality guidelines herself – compared that incident to the response to his other social media posts around the same time.
She said: “Curious that Gary Lineker was free to raise questions about Qatar’s human rights record – with the blessing of the BBC – over the World Cup, but cannot raise questions of human rights in this country if it involves criticism of government policy…”
In advance of the tournament, Lineker criticised then foreign secretary James Cleverly after he suggested LGBT football fans should be “respectful” of Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal, if they visited for the World Cup.
Responding to the comments, Lineker said: “Whatever you do, don’t do anything gay. Is that the message?”
A pitch invader with a rainbow flag during a Qatar World Cup match. Pic: AP
The time he didn’t speak out
Reflecting on his comments about the Qatar World Cup, Lineker said he and the BBC should have spoken out more during the World Cup in Russia in 2018.
At the time there were calls for Russia to be stripped of the World Cup or boycotted in 2014 after it annexed Crimea and was blamed by the West for supplying arms to pro-Russian separatists suspected of shooting down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine.
“I think we were all going how great it was, and this and that and the other, and that’s how sportwashing works,” Lineker said during a BBC Radio 4 interview.
“We’ve seen what Putin’s done subsequently, but he’d done it before.
“I think looking back now in hindsight, I think we should probably have spoken out more.”
Entertainment
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs lawyers call for almost immediate release at sentencing – and describe ‘inhumane’ prison conditions
Sean “Diddy” Combs’s lawyers have called for the music mogul to be given no more than 14 months in prison when he is sentenced next month – meaning he would walk free almost immediately.
In a new written legal submission, the defence team also detailed “inhumane” conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York – saying food sometimes contains maggots, that the rapper is routinely subjected to violence, and that he has “not breathed fresh air in nearly 13 months”.
Combs, 55, was found guilty of two prostitution-related charges following his high-profile trial in the summer, but cleared of the more serious charges of sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.
He has already served a year in custody in New York following his arrest in September 2024, and is due to be sentenced on 3 October.
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How the Diddy trial unfolded
His defence lawyers have now made their arguments for sentencing in a written submission to Judge Arun Subramanian, who heard the trial.
“In the past two years, Mr Combs’s career and reputation have been destroyed,” his lawyers said in the document. “He has served over a year in one of the most notorious jails in America – yet has made the most of that punishment.”
They said Combs has been “adequately punished” already, having been jailed in “terrible conditions”. He has also become sober “for the first time in 25 years” and had an “incident-free record”, they added, and helped other inmates by creating an educational programme on business management and entrepreneurship.
It is now time for the rapper “to go home to his family, so he can continue his treatment and try to make the most of the next chapter of his extraordinary life”, the defence team said.
Combs fell to his knees when the jury’s verdicts were delivered. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
‘Maggots and limited clean water’
The defence’s submission provides new information about what life behind bars has been like for Combs, a Grammy-winning artist and Bad Boy Records founder who was one of the most influential hip-hop producers of the 1990s and 2000s, and for his family and previous associates.
The rapper had to let more than 100 employees go from his businesses following his arrest, it said, and many have been unable to find work due to their previous association with him.
Combs’s seven children have also faced “devastating consequences”, according to the legal filing, including lost business opportunities in acting, television, fashion and music.
The rapper’s mother Janice Combs supported him during the trial. Pic: Reuters
The rapper and his family were also set to star in a Hulu show about their lives, but the show was cancelled once the allegations against him became public.
Combs was removed from the boards at three charter schools he created in Harlem, the Bronx and Connecticut and was also stripped of an honorary doctorate degree from Howard University, which plans to return his prior donations, it said.
The defence’s document also goes into detail about the alleged conditions at the detention centre where Combs is being held.
Judge Arun Subramanian heard the trial and will sentence Combs. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
“Mr Combs is routinely subject to violence – both directed at him and at others,” they said. On 12 September, they said members of the defence counsel were in the middle of a call with the rapper that had to be ended suddenly “because of a stabbing that locked the facility down for the next several days”.
Living conditions are “inhumane”, they argued, and Combs has been “under constant suicide watch”, meaning every two hours he “must present his identification card to the guards to show he is alive and well. While he is sleeping, he is awoken by an officer to ensure he is well and subjected to bright lights illuminated 24 hours per day”.
He also has limited access to clean water, they said, and often “heats his water to have clean water to drink without getting sick”.
Describing the dorm-style room he sleeps in, they said he is within “two feet from other inmates with the bathroom in the same room, with no door”.
Read more:
How the trial unfolded
The rise and fall of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
The rapper “has not breathed fresh air in nearly 13 months, or felt sunlight on his skin”, the document added, while food “on any given day can contain maggots”.
The judge has already rejected a proposed $50m bail package for Combs.
Prosecutors, who will also submit their recommendations for sentencing ahead of the hearing, have already said they will call for him to remain in prison for a substantial period.
Combs was found guilty of two counts of transportation for engagement in prostitution – for flying girlfriends and male sex workers around the US and abroad for sexual encounters referred to as “freak offs”. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Late night TV show presenter Jimmy Kimmel, who was taken off the air following a row over comments about Charlie Kirk, will return on Tuesday.
Kimmel, who was accused of being “offensive and insensitive” because of what he said on his show last Monday, will go back on air in his regular slot.
Disney said in a statement: “Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country.
“It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive.
“We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
Jimmy Kimmel had criticised President Donald Trump for his response to the murder of Charlie Kirk. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
Earlier today, hundreds of Hollywood stars signed an open letter to defend free speech following Kimmel’s suspension.
Robert De Niro, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Anniston, Selena Gomez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep are among those who have penned the appeal.
More than 430 of the stars, including comedians, directors and writers, urged Americans to “fight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights”.
The letter is addressed to the American Civil Liberties Union, and argues the decision was a “dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation”.
The letter adds: “Regardless of our political affiliation, or whether we engage in politics or not, we all love our country.
Robert De Niro was among those to sign an open letter in protest to Kimmel’s ban. (Pic: Reuters/Sarah Meyssonnier)
“We also share the belief that our voices should never be silenced by those in power – because if it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.”
The list of signatures also includes Emmy-winner Noah Wyle, Oscar-nominated Florence Pugh, comedian David Cross, Tony-winner Kelli O’Hara and Molly Ringwald. Pedro Pascal, Billy Crystal, Nathan Lane, Kerry Washington and Kevin Bacon have also signed the letter.
The letter concludes: “This is the moment to defend free speech across our nation. We encourage all Americans to join us, along with the ACLU, in the fight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights.”
Kimmel had used his show to accuse President Donald Trump and his allies of capitalising on the conservative influencer’s assassination.
He said: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
Speaking about Trump, he added: “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he calls a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
President Donald Trump had celebrated Kimmel’s suspension.(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
“Many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalise on the murder of Charlie Kirk,” he continued.
The Disney-owned ABC pulled the show following criticism from Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
Mr Carr had threatened to “take action” against Disney and ABC.
In an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson, he said: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way”.
Mr Carr then praised the move, saying “it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine falls short of community values”.
But the decision sparked a global, furious backlash from the public and high-profile figures around the world.
Among them was former US President Barack Obama, who said on X: “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.”
He added: “This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent – and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.”
The decision came at a time Disney and Nexstar, the network operator, had FCC business ahead of them, with the former seeking regulatory approval for ESPN’s acquisition of the NFL Network and the latter need the Trump administrations approval to complete a $6.2billion purchase of broadcast rival, Tegna.
Trump, who was on a state visit of the UK at the time, said Kimmel had been cut for “bad ratings”.
He had said: “Well, Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings, more than anything else.
“And he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk.”
He added: “Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person. He had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago.
“So, you know, you could call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.”
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