BBC stars’ thoughts on Gary Lineker after Match of the Day update | Football | Sport

Gary Lineker brought a wealth of first-hand experience and insider knowledge to his role as the host of Match of the Day. It now appears that fans may be missing the former England striker’s casual charm and easygoing repartee, as the BBC’s flagship football show has actually lost viewers since the 65-year-old left. Lineker departed the show in May 2025 after a row over a social media post he made about the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Gabby Logan, Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman now share duties on Saturday and Sunday nights. However, the latest figures showed the weekly audience for the two programmes was 6.88million viewers, which is 770,000 fewer than the average for August to December 2024. Lineker was quite simply one of the best in the business when it came to bringing football to the masses, something many of his colleagues over the years have agreed on.

Former Liverpool icon Alan Hansen shared a studio with Lineker for almost three decades. The European Cup-winning legend has previously praised the former goalscorer for his on-air abilities.

“You don’t do something for 26 years and have the great times he had, without thinking, ‘This has been a huge, huge part of my life.’ He was really, really quick. Sharp, intelligent, clinical, prolific goalscorer as well,” Hansen said.

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“As soon as he left football, he intimated that he wanted to be a presenter, he didn’t want to be a pundit. It was a seamless journey. We had so many good laughs and we worked with so many great people – we weren’t bad on that programme at all.”

With Lineker leaving, his colleague and friend, Newcastle United hero Alan Shearer, sent an emotionally charged farewell, demonstrating just how much the Leicester City legend would be missed.

“Match of the Day means everything to him. He loves it, it means the world to him,” Shearer said. “When you look at who he had to come in and replace, the brilliant Des Lynam, it might not have been easy at first for Gary.

“But he seems to have taken to it with ease. Gary you’ve been a great friend, you’ve been amazing to me and you’ve been unbelievable to Match of the Day. Whatever you choose to do on Saturdays, good luck and we’ll miss you.”

Controversy struck in March 2023 when Lineker was removed from his presenting duties at the BBC after he criticised the British government’s asylum policy via social media.

In a stunning show of solidarity, several BBC stars, including Shearer, commentator Steve Wilson, presenter Jason Mohammad, former Arsenal women’s star Alex Scott, and others, pulled out of their roles with the BBC.

Match of the Day subsequently went ahead without Lineker or any pundits. Just three days later, his suspension ended, and Lineker returned to the hot seat. The episode was a clear indication of Lineker’s power at the broadcaster, but it primarily confirmed just how well thought of he was in the role.

Joining the chorus of praise, Ex-Manchester City star turned BBC and Sky Sports pundit Micah Richards said: “His greatest strength, when all the stuff that’s going on in our ears, he’s the calmest person in the room.”

Likewise, Arsenal great Ian Wright added: “What Gary Lineker means to me. Someone I admire so much, someone who has helped me so much in the punditry game. I was fortunate enough to do it alongside him and now I am lucky enough to call him my friend.”

Lineker’s contract with the BBC made him the broadcaster’s highest-paid talent at a staggering £ 1.3 million a year. However, former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy claimed Lineker’s compassion matched his professionalism – perhaps making him worth every penny to the Beeb.

“Gary’s a friend of mine and he’s been phenomenal to me since the day I walked in the building,” Murphy told talkSPORT in November 2024. “A warm, charismatic, intelligent man who knows his football and has become part of everybody’s furniture, if you like, on a Saturday evening.

“I’d done a few shows and he was always great. And in my first tournament, I was thrust into the World Cup in Brazil really quickly. And it was quite daunting as Alan Hansen was there, Alan Shearer, you know, a lot of these people who I’d looked up to.

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“Between Gary and Alan, and Gary especially was the first one to always, even if I wasn’t working on the same show as him, leave me a message saying, ‘We’re going to be eating here, we’re going to be in this bar, we’re going to be in this hotel. Come and meet us, get a cab to there, we’ll be there.’

“You know, all those types of little things that brought me in. And I’ll never forget how he treated me and how welcome he made me, how good he made me feel.”

BBC star Dan Walker took to social media to wax lyrical on the man he had deputised for on occasion. He said: “Match of the Day won’t be the same. It was always a pleasure to present the show but it was always Gary’s chair. Brilliant career on the pitch matched by a brilliant stint on the biggest football show on telly.”

While Match of the Day’s TV figures are down, the BBC now shows highlights on its iPlayer app and that has seen a 21 per cent rise in digital views. This means the BBC has lost just over 750,000 viewers for the BBC One and BBC Two Match of the Day broadcasts, but gained double that number in digital viewers.

The BBC’s director of sport, Alex Kay-Jelski, said: “Yeah, it’s been going great because the numbers overall of the brand – because we added this year the clips on top of all the other great work we’ve done with the traditional programme – we’re hitting 20 or 21 per cent more people overall.”