LONDON, Nov 12, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Former England football captain Gary Lineker is set to leave his role presenting the BBC's flagship Match of the Day highlights show at the end of the season, BBC News reported on Monday.

The 63-year-old took over as host of the Saturday night programme in 1999.

In March last year, Lineker was briefly taken off air by bosses after comparing the language used to launch a British government asylum policy to the rhetoric of Nazi-era Germany on social media.

That sparked a row about BBC presenters expressing political views.

In solidarity with Lineker, a number of fellow presenters and pundits including Alan Shearer and Ian Wright refused to appear on the programme, meaning an episode was reduced to 20 minutes and aired without its host, pundits and commentary. Lineker was reinstated just over a week later

The former Leicester, Everton, Tottenham and Barcelona forward has hosted refugees in his home and has often criticised government policies, particularly on immigration.

The BBC launched an independent review of its social medial guidelines, which recommended that high-profile presenters should be able to express views on political issues but should stop short of campaigning on party politics or for activist organisations.

Speculation had been mounting over Lineker's future since an interview with BBC Breakfast in August in which he said he looked forward to "another year doing it, at least".

Last week Lineker, who turns 64 at the end of November, admitted he would "have to slow down at some point", and intimated to Esquire magazine that he may seek to focus full-time on his successful podcast business.

In August 2016, Lineker made good on an earlier promise to present the show in his underpants after his boyhood club Leicester won the Premier League.