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Gary Lineker Suspended as Match Of The Day Host Following Political Controversy

James Gregory

(Image credit: Mark Pain/Alamy)

Football presenter, Gary Lineker has been suspended as host of BBC’s Match Of The Day, following critical comments over UK Government.

The UK Government this week unveiled an Illegal Migration Bill aimed at tackling the cross-channel entry of illegal migrants onto British territory.

Lineker proceeded to openly criticise their plans on Twitter as ‘beyond awful.’

He went on to compare the language used within the bill in a reply to another Twitter user to that of Germany in 1930s, in which he commented: “This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 1930s.”

His comments however sparked controversy amongst MPs with home secretary, Suella Braverman describing his view of her plans as something which “disappointed” her, despite her controversial record in the role across two terms.

Some figures within the BBC thought that Lineker had overstepped the mark in terms of their editorial guidelines, but initially decided to let him continue in his role as host of Match Of The Day which led him to issue a tweet describing the anger as ‘out of proportion’.

BBC have since u-turned following ‘extensive discussions’ with Lineker and now “consider his recent social media activity to be a breach of our guidelines.”

Officials consequently decided to suspend the £1.35m star until further notice whilst discussions are held about his future use of social media, as they issued the following statement:

“The BBC has decided that he will step back from presenting Match of the Day until we’ve got an agreed and clear position on his use of social media.

“When it comes to leading our football and sports coverage, Gary is second to none.”

BBC also iterated that Lineker shouldn’t ” be an opinion free zone, or that he can’t have a view on issues that matter to him,” but have advised him to steer clear of “political issues and political controversies.”

Upon confirmation of Lineker’s absence from tomorrow evening’s (11 March) Match Of The Day, ex Arsenal player and BBC pundit, Ian Wright tweeted his support for the under-fire host with Alan Shearer, Micah Ricards, Alex Scott and Jermain Jenas following suit.

BBC responded by deciding to go ahead without a studio presenter or pundits and issued the following statement: “Some of our pundits have said that they don’t wish to appear on the programme while we seek to resolve the situation with Gary.

“We understand their position and we have decided that the programme will focus on match action without studio presentation or punditry.”

BBC’s commentary team have also decided to withdraw ther services for the edition but iterated that BBC will take World Feed commentary instead.

Dan Walker who used to cover the occasional edition of Match Of The Day added that he wouldn’t fancy filling in as host this weekend, having recently moved to Channel 5 as host of their News coverage.

Walker also defended Shearer and Wright for their decision to stand in solidarity with Linker.

Outgoing SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon even dished out her brutal opinion of the BBC’s actions which she described as ‘indefensible’ and an example of ‘undermining free speech in the face of political pressure’ amidst of further scandalous links between Government and BBC.

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