1d ago

Gary Lineker ‘to leave the BBC this week’ after antisemitism row

www.theguardian.com

Gary Lineker is expected to announce he is leaving the BBC on Monday after apologising for amplifying online material with antisemitic connotations, the Guardian understands.

The Match of the Day host will reportedly not present the 2026 World Cup or next season’s FA Cup after “bowing out by mutual agreement” with the broadcaster.

A rat is an antisemitic trope that was used in Nazi Germany to characterise Jews as vermin. Lineker said in a statement that he would “never knowingly share anything antisemitic” and had deleted the post “as soon as I became aware of the issue”.

The BBC director general, Tim Davie, had been facing calls all week to sack Lineker, who was paid £1.4m by the BBC last year.

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Last week, the 64-year-old apologised after it emerged he had reposted a pro-Palestine video on social media that criticised Zionism and included an illustration of a rat.
A rat is an antisemitic trope that was used in Nazi Germany to characterise Jews as vermin. Lineker said in a statement that he would “never knowingly share anything antisemitic” and had deleted the post “as soon as I became aware of the issue”.
So first off, fuck Bibi and his genocide.
But yeah. Representing the Jewish people with a rat isn't something we should be doing due to historical connotations.
- To be fare Jewish people have been characterized as so many things that it becomes hard to not be attacked as antisemites
  From where I’m from a caricature artist made a Nethanayou vampire bleeding out Gaza. It was taken down with a « sincere » apology that the artist didn’t know that Jews were characterized as vampires in the Nazi cinema
  
  I'm pretty sure some of the famous Nazi slogans called them "vermin" explicitly
  
  It wasn't just there, it existed long before the nazis
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_libel
  I don't expect people to have an all encompassing knowledge of racism/bigotry, but yeah...
  That sounds like it would warrant a legitimately sincere apology if the artist was unaware. I don't understand what the problem is there, that's what a rational person would do.
- Yes, but again, he didn't know it was a dogwhistle. I myself have accidentally used dogwhistles before as well for things.
  
  Yes, but again, he didn’t know it was a dogwhistle
  Also, the sun came up this morning. And experts say it will likely happen again tomorrow...
  He wasn't aware of it, became aware of it, so he apologized and removed the video.
  That doesn't invalidate his original message and doesn't need to keep being rehashed.
  We can just move on instead of constantly repeating true things, but if that's what we're doing let's look at the silver lining at least and talk about how the planet hasn't literally plunged into eternal darkness yet.
- Lineker is a pretty stand-up guy so I can't imagine him posting anything which is clearly anti-semitic on purpose. Either he was drunk or they did some big reaching to implicate antisemitism like they do for Latuff cartoons.
  
  No idea who he is, but it is plausible he didn't know the history when he shared it.

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