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.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    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.

    • TribblesBestFriend@startrek.website
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      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

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        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.

    • Flax@feddit.uk
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      Yes, but again, he didn’t know it was a dogwhistle. I myself have accidentally used dogwhistles before as well for things.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        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.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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      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.

  • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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    Zionists infesting every fucking western is institution to run shill ops for Israel… But this guy needs to apologize BC he used an unsanctioned insult

    Westoid regime for ya, where genociders feelz are more important than people’s lives.

    At least normies are starting to take notice how delulu this behaviour is getting.

    One generation before Israel loses broad support as boomers die off.

    Lord willing, Israelis will reap what they sowed… Sadly Palestinians will be dead or displaced but that’s the price that the boomer was willing to pay because never again 🤡

  • tetris11@feddit.uk
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    This is a new low for the BBC. The man is a national treasure, and hopefully the public will start waking up to this very public and very unneccesary purge.