Gary Lineker, the BBC’s highest-paid presenter and one of the United Kingdom’s most recognized media figures, issued a full apology on Wednesday after sharing an Instagram post earlier in the week about Zionism that included antisemitic imagery, The Washington Post reported.
The controversial post, originally shared by the group Palestine Lobby, featured a video titled “Zionism explained in two minutes” and was illustrated with a picture of a rat—a historic symbol used in antisemitic propaganda, including by the Nazis.
“I reposted material which I’ve since learned contained offensive references,” Lineker said in a statement on Wednesday. “I withdrew the post as soon as I became aware of the issue, and I take full responsibility for this mistake. I would never knowingly share anything antisemitic — it goes against everything I believe in.”
The backlash, however, was swift, not least because this is by no means the first time that Lineker has posted questionable material about either Israel or Jews. The advocacy group Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) called for Lineker’s dismissal, accusing him of a pattern of hostility toward Israel and Jewish concerns. “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 the group. “Mr. Lineker’s continued association with the BBC is untenable. He must go.”
Lineker, 64, is set to step down this month from hosting “Match of the Day,” the BBC’s flagship soccer highlights program. Despite this, he recently signed an extension to continue presenting the BBC’s coverage of the FA Cup and the 2026 World Cup. He is also the co-founder of Goalhanger, the podcast production company behind a litany of highly popular titles, including “The Rest is History,” “The Rest is Politics,” and “The Rest is Football,” which he presents along with fellow pundits Alan Shearer and Micah Richards.
BBC Director-General Tim Davie commented on the controversy before Lineker’s apology, saying: “Our reputation is held by everyone, and when someone makes a mistake, it costs us. We need people to be exemplars of BBC values and follow our social media policies.”
This is not the first time Lineker has clashed with BBC guidelines. In March 2023, he 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.
“Whilst I strongly believe in the importance of speaking out on humanitarian issues, including the tragedy unfolding in Gaza, I also know that how we do so matters,” Lineker said on Wednesday.
But some commentators argue Lineker’s moral stance is riddled with contradictions. Brendan O’Neill, chief political writer for Spiked and a columnist at The Spectator, was particularly scathing. Speaking at a Jewish Chronicle event in Mill Hill, he described Lineker’s criticisms of Israel as “another level of double standard.”
“He rubs shoulders, has chats, has beers with a man [Alastair Campbell] who played a part in something far worse than what’s happening in Gaza, and yet still thinks he can say Gaza is the worst thing he’s ever seen,” said O’Neill. “That goes beyond hypocrisy—it’s grotesque.”
O’Neill also took aim at the BBC’s broader coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, calling it “unforgivably bad” and “the worst coverage of a war I’ve ever seen.” He accused the broadcaster of spreading “emotional manipulation” devoid of context, and claimed it had framed Israel as “uniquely guilty.”
His latest book, “After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel and the Crisis of Civilisation,” argues that the West failed a moral test by not standing unequivocally with Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas massacre.
Lineker remained silent for days following the attack, despite having previously compared U.K. government rhetoric to that of Nazi Germany. “A thing that actually did look like something out of the 1930s—Jews bundled into trucks, kidnapped, raped, murdered—and he said nothing,” O’Neill remarked. “That silence speaks volumes.”
In a poll on The Daily Telegraph‘s website, more than 100,000 people have voted in favor of Lineker’s immediate ouster from the BBC.
