Revelation comes as controversial host set to step down from presenting Match of the Day at the end of the football season
Gary Lineker will stop presenting Match of the Day next year before leaving the BBC entirely in 2026 (Image: PA)
Gary Lineker will have cost taxpayers more than £30million during his 26-year BBC career, according to new analysis.
The Match of the Day host, who currently earns about £1.3million a year, is to step down from the flagship football show at the end of this season.
But the 63-year-old will continue to front the BBC’s FA Cup coverage in 2025-26, as well as hosting the corporation’s coverage of the 2026 World Cup.
When he finally hangs up his presenting boots for the Beeb, Lineker will have earnt at least £30million.
Figures from the BBC’s annual accounts reveal the former England striker has earnt about £9.3million in the past six years alone.
His current salary – the equivalent to 8,000 TV licence fees – was slashed from a staggering £1.75million in 2020.
BBC records show the ex-Tottenham and Barcelona footballer was raking in at least £1million a year from 2010 onwards.
From 2013 onwards, he was the corporation’s highest-earner, taking over from Graham Norton and Jeremy Paxman.
Lineker became BBC Sport’s highest-paid presenter when he signed a pay deal to take over from Des Lynam in 1999.
At the time, he was reported to be earning £500,000 a year, but this rapidly rose towards a nine-figure salary during the noughties.
One BBC source told the Express that the host’s salaries will have totalled “at least £30million and probably closer to £35million or £40million” during his quarter-of-a-century career.
Joanna Marchong, investigations campaign manager, said Lineker’s salary over just six years out of his 26 years at the BBC could pay for 55,029 yearly licence fee payments at the current rate of £169.50.
“For years Gary Lineker has been not just the best-paid employee of the BBC, he’s been the best-paid employee of any public sector organisation,” she said.
“Lineker may be missed by some, at least initially. But for many licence fee payers, which now include the over-75s of course, this is a decision long overdue.
“Lineker was never worth the cost, neither to taxpayers nor the BBC, whose reputation for impartiality he has done so much to damage.”
Gary Lineker will have presented Match of the Day for 26 years when his contract ends (Image: Express)
Gary Lineker took over hosting Match of the Day from Des Lynam (Image: PA)
On Tuesday, the BBC said Lineker will continue to present the hit podcast Match of the Day: Top 10 for BBC Sounds.
He has previously worked for other broadcasters including BT Sports (since rebranded as TNT Sports), Al Jazeera Sports and NBC Sports Network.
The former Leicester and Everton player is also the face of Walkers crisps.
Lineker has appeared in Walkers adverts since 1995 after originally signing a £200,000 contract with the Leicester-based company.
He signed a £1.2million contract with Walkers in 2020.
In recent years, the presenter has seen his focus shift more towards his fast-growing podcast and media operation.
Lineker set up production business Goalhanger Podcasts in 2014 with former ITV controller Tony Pastor and former BBC executive Jack Davenport.
It produces The Rest Is History, a historical podcast presented by Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland, which launched in 2020.
The podcast has since become one of the UK’s most successful and has resulted in a number of offshoots, including The Rest Is Politics.
Lineker presents his own podcast, The Rest Is Football, alongside fellow former players Alan Shearer and Micah Richards.
There is limited public information about the firm’s finances, but recent Companies House accounts for Goalhanger showed it held £590,985 in capital and reserves at the end of the financial year to May 2023, with seven employees.
Lineker also owns a property empire including a house in Barnes, south-west London, which is reported to be worth around £4million.
