'Gary Lineker is being surrendered by the BBC for having an opinion'

So , one of the best broadcasters of his generation, .

They’ll deny it, naturally, and claim his Match of the Day tenure has run its course.

But you don’t allow a presenter as synonymous with the show, the brand and elite football as Lineker to simply slip through your fingers.

The , maybe even years, after the press release peppered with love hearts confirms his departure at the end of the season.

But there would appear to be little doubt that Lineker is leaving because he has an opinion and he wants to keep it.

He is leaving because he is more in touch with the views of the people than the so-called people’s broadcaster.

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Regardless of the information overload, we can expect to the contrary from the corporation, Lineker is the loose cannon the BBC cannot control.

As a friend put it to me this week, he is minted. He’s worked for BT Sport, American network NBC, Al Jazeera and others.

The success of his production companies which continue to grow exponentially, meant the Beeb could never wield the financial sword of Damocles over his head.

They couldn’t worry him into staying silent over the former government’s horrible rhetoric around migrants.

He refused to remain mute on the relentless killing in the Middle East. He amplification of opinions that articulated issues even better than he could, shot him into the news as well as the sports agenda.

Ironically, he is often urged by the critics who can’t shut him up, to endorse the subjects they needed help on, like football’s failure to protect women.

But he is leaving because he is in the unique position of not needing to worry about any discussion he wants to have being policed at a time when anything not aligning with the whims of the influential politicians and media outlets shut down.

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Few people believed the legendary smooth operator Des Lynam, who presented as though he was speaking only to you, could be replaced on Match of the Day.

And yet from the moment Lineker replaced Lynam on Grandstand after a successful playing career in England and Spain, he looked a decent fit.

He’d never received a yellow or red card as a player, across senior career which spanned 16 years and 654 competitive games.

He’d been inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame post-retirement. Admired by fans, respected by players past and present, what was not to like?

Cameo appearances on popular panel shows led to a popularity he would only embellish with appearances on TV shows such as They Think It’s All Over and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. He was already in everyone’s living rooms as the face of Walkers crisps.

So his transition to social media was a seamless one. He’d built up a captive audience for his compassion.

A huge number of high profile stars within sport and media shy away from issues they suddenly shout about when their currency is no longer relevant. Not Lineker.

He has never had any problem using his platform to point out that the Emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.

Even when his right wing critics told him to put his money where his mouth is and put up a refugee in his own £4million home, he did.

In fact, he welcomed two of them. One, student Rasheed Baluch, spoke of him as a “caring and loving defender of humanity”.

You’d think the BBC would be falling over themselves to retain someone like that as the face of their flagship football show.

Especially with the back stories of so many sports stars from abroad steeped in tragedy, trauma and adversity.

Instead the channel has stepped aside, agreed a deal and allowed Lineker to walk away.

How sad is that?

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