Gary Lineker will leave Match of the Day at the end of the season and the BBC have been casting their net far and wide to fill his considerable shoes – now they’re splitting the atom to do just that
Replacing Gary Lineker on the BBC’s flagship show, Match of the Day, was never going to be simple.
Finding a replacement with the same gravitas as the former England international turned broadcasting supremo was never going to be easy. So BBC Sport bosses have moved to replace Linker with not just one of the nation’s best presenters – they’re going to do it with three.
Two will come from in-house, with Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan, both versatile and outstanding in their own right.
And the third will see Kelly Cates make a major jump from Sky Sports – for whom the defection of the highly-regarded broadcaster, daughter of Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish, is a major blow.
As first reported by the Daily Mail, the 49-year-old has been highlighted as an outstanding external candidate. She has been an tremendous ambassador for Sky, with her excellent coverage of the Premier League and, more recently, the more tongue-in-cheek The Overlap, leading Sky pundits Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher and Roy Keane and ex-MOTD pundit Ian Wright.
She has also presented on Radio 5 Live and used to host 606 and her return is undoubtedly a huge coup.
The trio will all work across Match of the Day and MOTD2 – it’s Sunday night little brother – rotating presenting duties, while all three will continue to be used by BBC on other projects across TV and radio.
Lineker has fronted the iconic show for 25 years after replacing Des Lynam at the helm in 1999. He will continue with the BBC, leading coverage of the FA Cup next season and will also anchor their coverage of the 2026 World Cup.
And their announcement of his departure from MOTD highlighted that the company had signed a new one-year licensing deal to host two of the most popular podcasts – The Rest Is Football and The Rest Is History – made by his production company, Goalhanger Productions. The latter has become the most popular history podcast in the world, generating 11 million downloads per month, 1.2 million monthly YouTube views, as well as boasting 45,000 paying subscribers.
But Lineker’s £1.3million salary and the power that he boasts and utilises via his personal platforms on social media hasn’t sat well with the company’s top brass for some time – particularly since March 2023 when Lineker was stood down for one show and pundits and commentators went on strike in protest.
That is something the since-appointed BBC Director of Sport, Alex Kay-Jelski, won’t want to see a repeat of in future. And the radical move of filling Lineker’s shoes with three presenters rather than one, will help ensure it doesn’t.
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