Gary Lineker says his long run ended because the relationship had started to “run out of love” before he stepped down from Match of the Day last May. The former presenter, who fronted the programme for 26 years, said the split was brought forward after the row that followed his social media post about Zionism.
Lineker, speaking on The Louis Theroux Podcast, said he had been going anyway and that the controversy simply hastened what was already coming. “I think it’s like a marriage with the,” he said, adding: “We’d been together for a long time and we were starting to run out of love for each other.”
The comments land now because they put his exit in plain terms and reopen one of the ’s most talked-about recent departures. Lineker apologised for the Instagram post, which featured a depiction of a rat, and said he did not see the image when he shared it. He also said he did not think “anyone actually believes I would’ve posted that,” while describing the mistake as one he felt bad about.
That leaves his relationship with the broadcaster in an awkward place: cooled enough for him to leave, but not broken beyond repair in his telling. “I’ll always love the,” he said, calling it “an amazing, amazing corporation,” even as he described the bond as one that had worn down over time.
Lineker has moved on to The Rest Is Football, where he works alongside Micah Richards and Alan Shearer, and the podcast’s growth has become part of his shift away from old-style punditry. Goalhanger, the company behind the show, was named Britain’s fastest-growing company last week and reported £37.9 million in sales in 2025. The next big marker is already set: The Rest Is Football will become a daily Netflix TV show for the 2026 World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico.
For Lineker, the departure now looks less like a sudden break than the point at which an already fading relationship finally reached the end of its run.
