This isn’t Lineker’s first controversy. In 2023, the BBC said it had had a ‘frank conversation'” with the star after he criticized the government’s asylum policy, comparing the language to “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s.”

Gary Lineker, the former soccer star and long-time sportscaster for the BBC, is leaving the broadcaster amid backlash after reposting an Instagram story about Zionism that featured a rat emoji. Lineker announced his resignation on Monday, six days after a British antisemitism watchdog called for him to be dismissed over the post.

It is such a pity that Gary Lineker is leaving the BBC in this manner. His comments outside of sport have brought the world tumbling down on him and, clearly, it was a nonsense for him to have shared what is deemed to be an anti-Semitic message.

While Lineker has frequently shared content on social media that has fallen within the scope of the BBC’s new social media guidelines, the image of the cartoon rat – an antisemitic trope that harks back to 1930s Nazi Germany – has been heavily criticized. Lineker has since deleted the post. The BBC declined comment.