Gary Lineker has stepped down as co-presenter of the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year, following the news that he will leave Match of the Day, the corporation has confirmed.

The annual ceremony recognises the UK-based sportsperson who has had the year’s most notable achievements – chosen by a public vote.

A BBC spokesperson said on Wednesday: “After 23 years, last year’s 70th anniversary was his final show.”

Lineker’s final appearance saw him present alongside Clare Balding, Gabby Logan and Alex Scott, with England goalkeeper Mary Earps crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2023.

Lineker’s decision to step back comes a day after it was confirmed that he will stop hosting the BBC’s long-running football highlights show Match of the Day at the end of the current season.

However, the 63-year-old has signed a contract extension with the BBC through to the 2026 men’s World Cup, and will also front the corporation’s coverage of next season’s FA Cup.

The former England striker-turned-broadcaster will also continue with the MOTD Top Ten podcast, and his popular The Rest is Football podcast will now be hosted on BBC Sounds.

The podcast features Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards discussing the latest football news along with stories from their careers, and is part of Goalhanger productions, co-founded by Lineker.

In a statement on Tuesday, Lineker said: “I’m delighted to continue my long association with BBC Sport and would like to thank all those who made this happen.”

After three rounds of Rapid play on the opening day of the sixth Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz tournament at the Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium in Kolkata, Uzbek grandmaster Nodirbek Abdusattorov led the Open category standings with 2.5 points.

In the first round, Nodirbek drew with Russian grandmaster Daniil Dubov. He later went on to win against German grandmaster Vincent Keymer and young Indian grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa to grab two points. 

Meanwhile, five times world champion Magnus Carlsen, the star attraction of this year’s tournament, had an underwhelming start, drawing his first two rounds. He played his opening game against Praggnanandhaa before a houseful crowd at the Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium. 

Carlsen, in fact, faced Indian grandmasters in all of his three rounds on Wednesday. He drew with Nihal Sarin in the second round before winning his last round of the day against Vidit Gujrathi. 

At fifth in the standings, Sarin ended the day as the highest-ranked Indian. He drew all his matches. Other than Carlsen, he also shared points with fellow Indian grandmaster Arjun Erigiasi and Dubov.

In the Women category, Russian grandmaster Aleksandra Goryachkina took the top spot after three rounds of Rapid play on the first day. She is followed by grandmaster Kateryna Lagno from her country and Indian grandmaster Vantika Agrawal, with all three holding a similar score of 2 points. 

There will be a total of nine Rapid rounds in both the Open and Women’s categories. The final six rounds are scheduled for Thursday and Friday, with three rounds each day. The tournament will conclude with Blitz rounds on November 16 and 17.

Scotland’s concluding Nations League matches against Croatia and Poland will again to be broadcast on YouTube, rather than on television.

Scandinavian broadcaster Viaplay owns the rights to show the games but announced in June 2023 it is scaling back its operations in the UK.

The company will still produce coverage of the matches, but they will be shown on the Scottish FA’s YouTube channel dedicated to the national side.

It follows the same arrangement as the matches in October with the loss to Croatia and draw with Portugal attracting more than 1.5m views combined on YouTube.

Steve Clarke’s side host Croatia at Hampden on Friday before finishing their campaign away to Poland on Monday (both 19:45 GMT).

As well as the Scotland men’s matches, Viaplay held the rights to show the Scottish League Cup and the United Rugby Championship when it announced it would end all coverage of UK sports.

The media group then sold its UK sporting division back to Premier Sports earlier this year.

The deal included its share of the Scottish Cup and the Scottish League Cup, but did not include the rights to Uefa’s international competitions.

A deal was struck between Viaplay and ITV to show September’s matches against Poland and Portugal on the broadcaster’s ITVX platform, with BBC Scotland also in discussions to broadcast those matches.

However, Viaplay elected not to subcontract the rights for the rest of the campaign.

GREECE hero Nikos Dabizas revealed a funny conversation he had with England legend David Beckham after his iconic free-kick in 2001.

Beckham led the Three Lions to the 2002 World Cup with a stunning last-gasp strike which sealed a 2-2 draw against the Greeks in the 93rd minute.

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Greece were 2-1 up at Old Trafford thanks to goals by Angelos Charisteas and Demis Nikolaidis, either side of a Teddy Sheringham equaliser, which were set to condemn Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side to a tricky play-off with Ukraine.

But up stepped Becks for a final set-piece, 25 yards out of Antonis Nikopolidis’ goal.

He curled an impossible effort that caught the goalkeeper by surprise and sent England straight to the finals in Japan and South Korea.

Dabizas, 51, started that match and never forgot the Manchester United legend’s stunner that denied his team their first ever win over the English.

The Newcastle hero caught up with Beckham soon after in the Premier League for some belated post-match banter.

Dabizas told SunSport: “Yes, after the game – if I remember correctly – possibly later in a match against Manchester United. Relatively very soon. I messed with him, [I told him] ‘You got yourselves out of jail’.

“And he smiled. “[He laughed] It wasn’t a specific answer. [He’s] An absolutely normal guy.”

But Dabizas always knew how special that “unimaginably good” free-kick was for both England and Beckham’s career.

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And the ex-Leicester ace has fond memories of that match in Manchester as it marked the beginning of Greece’s journey to their historic Euro 2004 triumph under Otto Rehhagel.

Dabizas added: “I think he had an excellent performance in the game against us in 2001. It was a landmark match for his career and it was the first strong sign we gave as a team with Mr Rehhagel for what was to follow as we were very competitive in the qualifiers.

“We convinced ourselves that we can stand in front of very high-level teams because that England national team had a lot of talent. And the team that went to Portugal in 2004 had a lot of talent despite having some issues then in English football.

“Especially when they couldn’t capitalise on the characteristics they had as a team. They didn’t do that. They didn’t have the success they were capable of.

“Beckham was certainly a footballer who had tremendous appeal in set-pieces. His hits were unimaginably good. One of the best in the world [in terms of] the way he hit the ball and the trajectory the ball took.

“I believe it was a very special motion process. If anyone looks how he hit the ball will be able to understand that specialty that we mentioned.

“It was the last stages of the match, there was a lot of pressure, we were ahead, we were playing if I remember correctly with three central defenders. That’s when that whole story started with Mr Rehhagel trusting the system of three central defenders more.

“But I believe it was unavoidable with that part the game was on, when you have such an elite level footballer being able to get the ball either over the wall or the goalkeeper’s tight corner then I believe the difficulty level is very big.

“And it had that result that it had in the last stages of the match. And England qualified with that draw to the World Cup.”

Greece finally got their first ever win over England last month at their tenth time of asking after seven losses.

Dabizas watched Ivan Jovanovic’s men win 2-1 as a pundit at Wembley and will hope for a repeat tonight in Athens.

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The Formula 1 race director is in charge of race operations at every grand prix during the season.

They are responsible for a range of vital factors during the race weekend, including:

It is a demanding role, in which potentially life-and-death safety decisions must be taken in a matter of seconds, alongside ensuring the fair running of an enormous sporting event.

It is the stewards, rather than the race director, who investigate on-track incidents and decide on the penalties which are dished out to drivers found guilty of misdemeanours.

The race director is employed by the FIA, motorsport’s governing body. F1 has now had four different race directors in the past three years.

Charlie Whiting was F1 race director for over 20 years until his sudden death before the 2019 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. Whiting had earned a degree in mechanical engineering before rising to chief mechanic of the Brabham F1 team, overseeing Nelson Piquet’s two title successes in 1981 and 1983.

He was replaced by Michael Masi, who had combined studies in marketing with voluntary positions in low-level motor racing series early in his career. The Australian rose up the ranks to become race director of Formula 2 and 3 before his promotion to F1. He was eventually removed from the position after an error in the controversial 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Niels Wittich then took on the role in conjunction with Eduardo Freitas, the pair having been race directors in DTM and World Endurance Championship respectively, before becoming sole race director in the latter part of the 2022 season.

The FIA announced Wittich’s departure before the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix, with Rui Marques – who first joined the FIA in 2012 and has worked as race director in a variety of series – taking over.

Marques, 51, is stepping up from F2 and F3, having previously worked on the World Touring Car Championship and in karting in his native Portugal.

A BURGLAR who broke into Raheem Sterling’s mansion forcing him to fly home from the World Cup has been jailed.

Emiliano Krosi, 24, carried out 33 burglaries, including the raid on the England star’s home on December 3, 2022.

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He was part of a gang that used a ladder in the rear garden to climb through Arsenal ace Sterling’s bedroom window and steal ten of his Rolex watches.

An estimated £300,000 of designer gear was taken from the footballer’s £7million home in Oxshott, Surrey.

Albanian Krosi, who travelled illegally to the UK in the back of a lorry, previously admitted to being involved in 15 of the burglaries.

But yesterday at Guilford crown court Judge Catherine Hartley ruled he was involved in the remaining 18 break-ins.

She sentenced him to a total of 12 years and ten months in prison.

She said: “You are a dishonest and greedy man who willingly and enthusiastically took part in what was a familial, criminal gang.

“Your greed and your criminality has resulted in a huge toll of human misery.”

His offending took place while on bail after being caught with cocaine and cannabis on a train from London Euston to Coventry.

Krosi, from Southend, Essex, was sentenced to 19 months for possession with intent to supply which will run consecutively to the ­sentence for burglary.

Surrey Police continue to hunt for his dad Alfred Isufi, 48, uncle Henri Osman, 44, and 22-year-old cousin ­Gerard Kalaja, who are all believed to have fled the UK.

They are suspected of being part of the gang which raided houses across the Home Counties from November 2022 to March 2023.

Other victims included ex-Crystal Palace player Scott Dann and Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella, whose home was targeted days before his then team-mate Sterling’s.

PC Katherine Stevens, from Surrey Police, said: “Krosi was extremely methodical and organised in his targeting of homes, with the sole aim to make as much money as possible off the back of other people.”

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