The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is facing a crisis after the decision to pull ex-footballer and sports presenter Gary Linekar from hosting its flagship 'Match of the Day' triggered a wave of boycotts from co-hosts and players.
The broadcaster decided to "step back" Linekar on Friday after his controversial tweets on the UK government's new asylum-seeker policy. Linekar compared the UK government's rhetoric on immigration to that used by 1930s Germany, which the BBC said was "a breach of our guidelines."
However, BBC faced widespread condemnation for its actions as presenters, including former England internationals Alan Shearer, Ian Wright and Alex Scott, decided to keep away from in solidarity with Gary Lineker. Following this, Football Focus and Final Score (both on BBC One) were not aired.
While Saturday's blanket coverage of the most popular league in the world was called off, the BBC had no preview shows on radio or TV and no early evening summary of the final scores of Premier League games. Lunchtime TV program Football Focus was replaced with a rerun episode of Bargain Hunt, while early evening Final Score was swapped for The Repair Shop.
The 5 Live’s radio coverage was also altered. The Match of the Day, the world's most popular programme, saw its duration reduced from the usual hour and a half of highlights and analysis to a 20-minute compilation of clips from the day's games. There was no commentary or punditry.
The Professional Footballers' Association said some players wanted to boycott the show, and as a result, players involved in today's games will not be asked to participate in interviews with Match of The Day.' The union said it was a common-sense solution to avoid players facing sanctions for breaching their broadcast commitments.
Announcing the scrapping of much of its weekend sports programming, BBC said in a statement: "The BBC will only be able to bring limited sport programming this weekend and our schedules will be updated to reflect that," a BBC spokesperson said in statement Saturday. "We are sorry for these changes which we recognize will be disappointing for BBC sport fans," it added.
Meanwhile, Britain's national broadcaster is also facing allegations of political bias and suppressing free speech while Conservative politicians are hailing it for its decision.
While British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urged Lineker and the BBC to settle their disagreement, Keir Starmer, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, said the BBC was caving into political pressure from Conservative lawmakers.
Former BBC Director General Greg Dyke said the network undermined its credibility by appearing to bow to government pressure.
However, BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, said he would not resign. While Davie admitted it had been a "difficult day" for the corporation and it was working very hard to resolve the situation, he ruled out resigning over the issue.
"Success for me is getting Gary back on air and together we are giving to the audiences that world-class sports coverage which, as I say, I'm sorry we haven't been able to deliver today," Davie told BBC News. He said there had been no "pandering" to any political party on accusations that the BBC executives had bowed to pressure from Downing Street and ministers over the anti-government tweet.
Who is Gary Linekar?
Lineker, a former international star and the top scorer at the 1986 World Cup, finished his international career with 48 goals in 80 matches for England. The 62-year-old retired after stints with Barcelona, Tottenham, Everton and Leicester.
Lineker went on to become one of the U.K.'s most influential media figures and the BBC's best-paid star, earning 1.35 million pounds (USD 1.6 million) last year.
He, who has hosted Match of the Day since 1999, is employed by the BBC on a freelance basis. Linekar also boasts of an enthusiastic social media user with 8.7 million Twitter followers. However, this isn't the first time that Linekar has courted controversy with his comments. He is a vocal opponent of Brexit and in 2018 supported another EU referendum. Then, he emerged scot-free as he was a freelance broadcaster, meaning he was clear of the corporation's rules on impartiality since he does not do politics or front-line programmes.
He had earlier also tweeted about the Conservative Party taking money from "Russian donors". While retweeting a story about the then foreign secretary Liz Truss urging football teams to boycott the Champions League final in Russia, he added: "And her party will hand back their donations from Russian donors?"
