The BBC is facing calls to remove Gary Lineker from his FA Cup and World Cup presenting duties after he shared a pro-Palestinian message featuring an emoji with antisemitic connotations on social media.

The message was originally posted by the Palestine Lobby account and shared by the outgoing Match of the Day presenter’s Instagram account with his 1.2 million followers, before being deleted shortly afterwards.

The post included an emoji image of a rat under the headline “Zionism explained in less than 2 mins”.

Campaigners swiftly criticised Lineker’s apparent endorsement of the post. Rats were regularly used in Nazi Germany as imagery to depict Jewish people.

• Gary Lineker: BBC wanted me to leave Match of the Day

An accompanying video featured Diana Buttu, a Canadian-Palestinian lawyer, condemning Israel’s war in Gaza.

A spokesman for Lineker said: “It has been taken down.”Jewish groups and BBC staffers have called for the presenter, 64, to be fired from his role hosting the BBC’s coverage of the FA Cup final and 2026 World Cup in North America.The post was soon deletedIn November the BBC said that he would step back from his presenting duties after the tournament, having paid him £1.4 million last year.A BBC insider said that they were “frightened” by the use of the rat emoji from one of their highest-profile colleagues, which they claimed contravened the broadcaster’s anti-racism policy.It is not the first time that Jewish groups have been upset by Lineker’s social media activity.In 2023 he shared a statement calling for Israel to be banned from taking part in sporting events before deleting the post.• Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger Podcasts rakes in profit of £1.4mThe Campaign Against Antisemitism said that Lineker had inadvertently aligned himself with “extremists and antisemites” and is planning on lodging a complaint with the BBC.“Not only does this video deliberately misrepresent Zionism — the belief that Jews have the same right to self-determination as everyone else — but it adds a rat emoji in doing so,” they added.“As the BBC’s highest-paid presenter and owner of a major media enterprise, maybe he knows exactly what he’s doing. Having looked the other way until now, at this point it is clear that Mr Lineker’s continued association with the BBC is untenable. He must go.”The Board of Deputies of British Jews said that the broadcaster had allowed Lineker to behave inappropriately for far too long, adding: “The BBC should ask him to leave now rather than allowing him to dictate his own terms.”• Gary Lineker criticises the BBC for pulling Gaza documentaryDanny Cohen, a former BBC director of television, compared the message to “1930s Nazi propaganda”.“This is utterly grim,” he said. “The BBC’s director-general Tim Davie has a simple question to answer: does he tolerate the BBC’s flagship presenters sharing content that has historically been used as an antisemitic slur?”In a BBC interview last month with Amol Rajan, the Today programme co-host, the former England captain defended his right to be able to share his opinion about issues such as Gaza.“I’m sorry. It’s more important than the BBC. What’s going on there is the mass murder of thousands of children, probably something that we should have a little opinion on,” Lineker said.He added that it was important that the BBC was “factual” rather than impartial when it came to world affairs.“It wasn’t impartial about Ukraine and Russia,” he said. “I understand if it’s partial about our government and things in this country but something that’s going on that far away. Why does it?”A BBC spokesman said that the broadcaster did not comment on matters involving individuals.