“Gary has acknowledged the mistake he made. Accordingly, we have agreed he will step back from further presenting after this season,” director general Tim Davie was cited as saying on the BBC website, referring to Lineker’s weekly Match of the Day coverage.

Gary Lineker has resigned in disgrace from the BBC and been axed from World Cup coverage.

This follows his sharing of an anti-Semitic video featuring the image of a rat.

Good riddance. He was the very picture of everything rotten in the modern British establishment. pic.twitter.com/PvxiPhHYpW

— Nicholas Lissack (@NicholasLissack) May 18, 2025

Following the confirmation, Lineker announced his leave in a video on his personal Instagram account.

The storm surrounding the presenter commenced last week after the pundit shared a pro-Palestinian video on Instagram titled “Zionism explained in two minutes,” accompanied by an illustration of a rat—an icon used by the Nazis to depict Jews.

Lineker was slated to front the BBC’s coverage of the World Cup next year, but those plans have been abruptly axed in the wake of the incident.

Despite his subsequent apology, stating that he did not know the video contained material offensive to Jews, the backlash did not subside.

One anonymous BBC staff member was quoted by The Telegraph as saying, “His repeated offensiveness to Jewish people has clearly brought the BBC into disrepute. The interpretation of Zionism he has shared is anti-Semitic and the fact that the BBC thinks it’s acceptable is deeply upsetting to its Jewish staff, myself included.”

🚨@GaryLineker posted “Zionism explained in two minutes” with an image of a rat. In 1940 Joseph Goebbels, head of Nazi propaganda ordered the making of the anti-Semitic The Eternal Jew who were depicted as rats, who “carry contagion & devour resources.”

No comeback for this. pic.twitter.com/X9atGvtH6g

— David Atherton (@DaveAtherton20) May 14, 2025

He went on to express his “disgust” that Lineker was not dismissed sooner.

The broadcaster’s director general, Tim Davie, hinted last week about the controversy’s expected outcome.

“The BBC’s reputation is held by everyone and when someone makes a mistake, it costs us. And I think we absolutely need people to be the exemplars of BBC values and follow our social media policies, simple as that,” he said at an event at The Lowry arts centre in Salford, according to The Telegraph.

Lineker’s recent social media post was not the first time that he has posted questionable material about either Israel or Jews.

“As the BBC’s highest-paid presenter and owner of a major media enterprise, maybe he knows exactly what he’s doing,” said a spokesperson for advocacy group Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA). “Mr. Lineker’s continued association with the BBC is untenable. He must go.”

In March 2023, Lineker was briefly suspended after comparing the U.K. government’s asylum policy to language used in 1930s Germany. In February, he also joined 500 public figures in signing a letter urging the BBC to reinstate a Gaza documentary that was later revealed to feature the child of a Hamas official as its narrator.