The football presenter Kelly Cates is understood to be leaving Sky Sports to replace Gary Lineker on the BBC’s Match of the Day.

Cates, a popular broadcaster and the daughter of the former Liverpool footballer Kenny Dalglish, is understood to be joining a new presenting team including the Match of the Day 2 presenter Mark Chapman and the BBC sports broadcaster Gabby Logan for next season.

When approached by the Guardian, the BBC said it had a policy to not “comment on speculation”, while a spokesperson for Sky Sports noted that they had seen reports of Cates’ departure and had “nothing to add”.

The Daily Mail reported that Sky bosses were understood to be “deeply saddened” by the loss of Cates, 49, who has presented the channel’s Premier League coverage since 2017. She had been identified by the BBC as the leading external candidate to replace Lineker.

It is thought that Cates, who also regularly presents for BBC Radio 5 Live, will share rotating hosting responsibilities for Match of the Day and Match of the Day 2 with the other two presenters.

The trio will replace Lineker, who will step down at the end of the season. He has presented Match of the Day since 1999, and will leave the BBC entirely after the 2026 World Cup, which will be held in the USA, Mexico and Canada.

Lineker said on his podcast, The Rest is Football, that he understood that executives were “looking to do Match of the Day slightly differently”, and that it made sense to replace him with another presenter.

The show’s new direction is expected to include a more digital focus, after the BBC signed a rights deal for 2025-26 that is thought to include allowing it to post clips of all goals scored in the Premier League on the BBC website.

Despite an increasingly fragmented viewership, in which younger fans exchange pirated clips of matches on social media and watch highlights on YouTube minutes after the final whistle is blown, top executives at the BBC are said to see “untapped potential” in a revamped iteration of the brand.

The new format is also rumoured to contain more of a news element, as well as including more written content and analysis.

Despite broadcast TV figures plummeting by 26% since 2015, TV sports viewing has proved to be relatively robust, falling by just 3%.

• Match of the Day
• Gary Lineker
• BBC
• news