Gary Lineker reveals unfortunate first during Match of the Day farewell

Gary Lineker has reflected on his final Match of the Day after he left the BBC following a social media row, with the former England striker admitting he was 'emotional'

Gary Lineker shared a behind-the-scenes insight into his final Match of the Day, revealing he had to improvise after an unexpected last-minute blip.

Originally due to step down in 12 months, his departure was brought forward after a social media controversy. During an emotional Sunday show, which he had hosted since 1999, the 64-year-old described his unscripted moment on his podcast, The Rest is Football.

"I was a bit emotional last night, but I'm fine, I'm good and thank you both for your very kind words," Lineker said alongside Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, pundits on his final show.

"I must say when they played the montage, obviously I knew something was coming but I didn't know what it was at all and I was struggling to keep myself, especially when I saw my boys. Thankfully that wasn't the last clip because I had gone at that point and I needed time to get myself together and try to get through the end of the show.

"It's weird isn't it? I've presented it for 25, 26 years and I always finish with the Premier League table and a closing line, which again I did last night. But for the first time ever because of everything that was going on, I completely lost what we call the copy, which is basically the written form of what I read out over the tables.

"That is written by the subs, it needs to be accurate obviously for all the things, you can't make any mistakes and for the first time in 26 years I couldn't find it. And it wasn't there, so I just busk. There were a couple of tears, I was fighting it back a bit with my closing lines, but yeah, and big thank you actually to Richard Hughes, he is the (Match of the Day) editor. Rich is brilliant, he's the best in the business and getting that montage together was a brilliant thing."

Lineker's exit from the BBC came in the wake of controversy following his sharing of an online post on Zionism that included an image of a rat, which is commonly recognised as an antisemitic trope.

He extended a full apology after the incident and confirmed his early departure from his hosting duties at the BBC.

Although Lineker had intended to continue working with the BBC for live FA Cup matches and the 2026 World Cup, he realised that leaving sooner rather than later was "best for all concerned".

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