Gary Lineker: BBC Sport’s 15 highest earners gallery as pundits continue to show support

The eyes of the country have been focused on the BBC and its sports coverage presenters over the past week as Gary Lineker refused to back down in an impartiality row.

The Match of the Day presenter was outspoken in criticising the government's new asylum policy as "beyond awful" and compared language used around the policy as similar to that of Germany in the 1930s.

As a result, the BBC said that Lineker had breached its social media guidelines and that he would step back from presenting Match of the Day while the issue was resolved.

Fellow sports pundits working for the BBC then refused to appear on shows in an act of solidarity with Lineker, who they believed the BBC was trying to wrongfully silence.

The BBC issued an apology to viewers last weekend as sports coverage was slashed and this week confirmed that Lineker would return to the show with an agreement reached.

The incident is just the latest moment when the BBC has come under scrutiny with discussions over licence fees also still raging on.

Each year the broadcaster is also thrown into public discussion when the salaries of its stars are published. As the BBC is paid for by the public, it is obligated to make the wages of its highest earners available.

Below the Yorkshire Evening Post takes a look at some of those figures for sports presenters between 2021 and 2022.

Only those earning over £150,000 are included in the report, which is the explanation for some notable absentees such as Ian Wright, Danny Murphy and Leon Osman.