Moderator Gary Lineker has been suspended from the British broadcaster BBC after a tweet critical of the government. Solidarity with the former footballer is huge, the program was shortened. Now the Prime Minister has spoken.
Match of the Day is an institution on British television. Since 1964 shows the BBC in it summaries of football matches from England’s top league. The moderator then analyzes the games together with experts. The show will also be available on Saturday (March 11th, 2023), for 10:20 p.m. local time BBC One in program. But everything will be very different than usual, because a moderator, experts and even your own commentators will be missing.
The reason is Gary Lineker of the BBC after an anti-government tweet and his refusal to apologize for the latter was provisionally suspended.
Experts and commentators cancel the BBC
Since then there has been a wave of solidarity. Ian Wright and Alan Shearerboth also former England internationals, said the BBCthat they are not available for the broadcast.
In a joint statement, the commentators said that for the six Saturday games of the premier league provided that they would not be available either. Numerous other employees of the various BBC sports programs on television, radio and the Internet showed their solidarity with Lineker and stopped working.
Numerous programs were canceled or ran in slimmed-down versions. Lineker’s show “Match of the day” was to take place without moderation, in an abridged version of 20 minutes. Otherwise, the show lasts around 90 minutes. Lineker was one of the best and most well-known English players before his career in journalism. He attended the home game of on Saturday Leicester City against Chelsea. Leicester was his first professional club.
Lineker on planned asylum policy: “Incredibly cruel”
The plans to generally refuse asylum in Great Britain to refugees who enter the country illegally are said to be “immeasurably cruel”Lineker said in a tweet, “immeasurably cruel”. The language used by the government in defending its plans is also similar to the language used in “Germany in the 1930s”.
Lineker, who has been presenting “Match of the Day” since 1999 but also works for other media, was subsequently dismissed by the public service institution BBC put to the test. A spokesman shared: “The BBC had extensive discussions with in the last few days gary and his team led. We said we were his youngest social media-Consider activity as a violation of our policies.”
Lineker stood by his statement and was suspended until further notice on Friday. The BBC said: “We have never said that Gary (…) cannot have an opinion on issues that are important to him, but we have said that he should refrain from taking sides on partisan issues or political controversies.”
Many users on social networks pointed out that the BBC once had a quote from George Orwell engraved on the wall at its headquarters as a statement for freedom of expression: “If freedom means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear.”
PM defends measures and hopes BBC and Lineker can find solution
Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made the statement on Saturday. “As Prime Minister, I have to do what I think is right – even if not everyone always agrees”he said of the measures criticized by Lineker.
“Gary Lineker was a great footballer and is a gifted presenter. I hope that the matter between Lineker and the BBC can be resolved quickly. But it is correctly a matter for them and not for the government.”
Solidarity also from footballers
According to the English Players’ Union, there have been inquiries from professionals asking if they have backing if they do BBC would refuse contractually agreed post-game interviews. The union assured this.
Meanwhile, the BBC have told the Premier League that they will not be making requests for interviews. In any case, there is no one left on the show today who could ask the questions.