Gary Lineker’s final Match Of The Day opening: ‘It wasn’t meant to end this way’
By Lauren Del Fabbro and Kerri-Ann Roper, PA Reporters
Gary Lineker started presenting his final Match Of The Day saying “It wasn’t meant to end this way” before referencing the title race being over and Champions League qualification being all there was to focus on.
After heading up the BBC sports show since 1999, the former England striker, 64, confirmed earlier in the week that he would be leaving the corporation after Sunday’s episode, following controversy over a social media post.
As the episode started, Lineker said: “It wasn’t meant to end this way… but with the title race over and the relegation places confirmed, the Champions League was all we had left to talk about about.”
His early exit comes after he faced criticism for sharing a social media post about Zionism which featured an emoji of a rat, historically used as an antisemitic trope.
Lineker, the BBC’s highest-paid presenter, issued an unreserved apology as it was confirmed he would leave his presenting role at the BBC early and will no longer front the corporation’s coverage of the 2026 World Cup or the FA Cup next season.
Presenting the final episode alongside fellow pundits, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, with whom he also hosts podcast The Rest Is Football, Lineker’s departure will be marked with a tribute similar to the one given to Ian Wright when he left in May 2024, it is understood.
Lineker joined the programme after starting out as a BBC Radio Five Live presenter, also working on Grandstand during his early years in broadcasting.
He is the co-founder of Goalhanger Podcasts which makes The Rest Is History series and its spin-offs about politics, football, entertainment and money.
The presenter was temporarily suspended from the BBC in March 2023 over an impartiality row about comments he made criticising the then-government’s new asylum policy.
In February of this year he was also among 500 other high-profile figures who signed an open letter calling on the BBC to rebroadcast a documentary, Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone, to BBC iPlayer.
Gabby Logan, Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman will replace the Leicester-born star and share the presenting role on Match Of The Day from the next Premier League season.