Not too far right minded, however
Thatâs a filleting.
The absolute smugness dripping off the presenter. The cunt
Gone home with his tea in a mug.
The BBC will survive this incident & probably come out the other side of this stronger.
Meanwhile, the Tories will be haunted by it.
The average Joe missing their MOTD tonight are going to be fucking livid.
The bounce the stupid cunts have given Labour here whilst cutting their own throats is absolutely shambolic.
Savage, his podcast with Rory Steward is unbelievable every week too
Football Focus and Final Score gone. And Dion Dublin and Mark Chapman have abandoned 5 Live.
The motd ship is sinkingâŚwhich is ironic becauseâŚnevermind
Thatâll never get off the ground
I thought the gammons hated MOTD anyway
All the Tory boys will now have to walk from the Beeb.
The scum will now lose the Power they had and wonât ever regain it after this.
For what? Telling lies on immigration numbers and taking offence to being called out on it.
The delusional cunts
They wonât have to walk. Thatâs the problem. They will brazen this out and will only be removed after the next GE.
It is the BBC, not Gary Lineker, who have scored the spectacular own goal
8h ago
348
Memo to the BBC: perhaps it would have been useful, in the case of Gary Lineker and Match of the Day, to look more closely at the writing on the side of your own building.
It is an old quote from George Orwell: âIf liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.â Just not, it seems, if you are a mere football man and what you say might go down badly with people in high places.
And so, we have the unprecedented situation on Saturday night whereby Match of the Day will not have a host because Lineker is on the naughty step â maybe temporarily, maybe for good â and all the people the BBC tried to parachute in to replace him have had the gumption to say no.
If nothing else, kudos to the relevant people for taking a stand in support of the showâs usual anchor. The same goes for all the pundits who have seen Lineker being punished for expressing his belief that the home secretary, Suella Braverman, was using language reminiscent of 1930s Germany during her latest stop-the-boats speech.
Ian Wright was the first to announce he would not be taking part out of solidarity with his colleague. Alan Shearer followed soon afterwards. Others made it clear behind the scenes that it was a W for Whatever from them, too.
So who did that leave?
âAnd so we go to Match of the Day, presented by Jeremy Kyle, with special guests Alan Curbishley, Nile Ranger and Spencer from Made in ChelseaâŚâ
A BBC Sport billboard from 2019 promotes Jermaine Jenas, Lineker, Alex Scott, Wright, Gabby Logan and Shearer outside its studios at the MediaCityUK complex in Salford (Photo: Paul ELLIS / AFP via Getty Images)
The upshot is that Saturdayâs show will âfocus on match action without studio presentation or punditryâ and what started as a gentle zephyr is turning into a hurricane for an organisation that appears to have had no idea that Linekerâs colleagues might take his side.
Lineker is, in the words of the BBC, âstepping backâ until an agreement is reached over his social media use, a position that could be described far more accurately as âbeing taken off the airâ once the hefty dose of PR spin is removed.
His words are said to have constituted a breach of the BBCâs rules on impartiality, which is interesting given that the same organisation gave him carte blanche to criticise Qatarâs politics before, during and after the World Cup.
It was OK then, apparently, to talk about human rights and use the BBC as a platform to share his views on what was right and what was wrong. Just not when it comes to the UK government if some of the people it may involve would rather he kept his trap shut.
More on Gary Lineker and Match of the DayâŚ
- Why isnât Lineker presenting MOTD? Whatâs next for the BBC?
- BBC in chaos after Linekerâs MOTD axe triggers mass walkout
All of which has caused a froth of moral indignation, in all sorts of ways.
First, there was the backlash to his comments and the opportunity, gleefully accepted, of a pile-on for the various newspaper titles most closely connected to the Conservative party.
Then there was the backlash to the backlash. And then came the announcement from Broadcasting House, just as everything was threatening to go quiet, that the former England captain had finally been shown the first yellow card of his long career, albeit not in a way anybody had ever imagined. Cue outrage from one side of the political spectrum and a tsunami of unconcealed glee from the other.
Many of the people who seem the happiest appear to see it as comeuppance for âlefty Linekerâ straying out of his domain when the common parlance in these circumstances, regurgitated by so many people with Union Jacks in their Twitter bios, appears to be that âbloody hell, Gary, stick to footballâ (which, by definition, means only politicians should ever be allowed to discuss politics).
Others find it hard to understand what exactly he has done wrong.
Was it simply that a person with 8.7 million Twitter followers had the kind of reach that made him a problem to what is, judging by the latest polls, a failing government?
Or did he really call them Nazis? Because it didnât actually happen that way, contrary to what you might have read. It was an illusion created by a bit of top-spin from the headline writers who, noticeably in some cases, have been referring to Suella by her first name while not affording Lineker the same courtesy.
For the record, the relevant tweet was in response to the home secretary launching an âenough is enoughâ address outlining why she wanted Britain to keep out the refugees who were arriving on boats in the hope of finding a better life.
Good heavens, this is beyond awful. https://twitter.com/ukhomeoffice/status/1633022905628884992
â Gary Lineker
(@GaryLineker) March 7, 2023
There had never been a huge influx, Lineker countered, especially in comparison to the other European countries who had opened their borders to much bigger numbers. âThis is an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the â30s, and Iâm out of order?â
Apparently so, in the eyes of Tim Davie, the director general of the BBC, whose job it was to consider whether Lineker had breached the organisationâs rules.
Linekerâs argument was that he was employed by various platforms, rather than just the Beeb, and tweeting independently. Clearly it didnât wash, almost certainly with some serious political pressure being applied. And, with no apology forthcoming, who can be sure if Lineker will be allowed to resume the role he has held since replacing Des Lynam in 1999?
What can be said with absolute certainty is that there are some exceptional double standards going on here if Lineker can be held accountable this way while Lord Sugar is free, it seems, to post whatever he likes on Twitter despite being another of the BBCâs main faces through The Apprentice.
Even ignoring, for one moment, Sugar comparing Senegalâs football team to souvenir sellers on âthe beach in Marbellaâ (a line of alleged humour that prompted an official complaint from Senegalâs ambassador to the United Kingdom), perhaps you remember the former Tottenham chairman supporting Boris Johnson, attacking the then Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and criticising the railways union for its train strikes.
Should Sir David Attenborough be kicked off the air for remarking on his nature documentaries that not enough is being done to tackle climate change? Is that how silly this has become?
Actually, donât answer that one: according to the Guardian, the BBC has just pulled an episode of his new series, Wild Isles, because of fears, post-Lineker, there might be a backlash from Conservative politicians and the right-wing media.
Lineker, the FA Cup at his side, watches on from the studio at Hillsborough as Sheffield Wednesday defeat Newcastle in the third round in January (Photo: Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)
As for Lineker, it says something that even Piers Morgan has defended the man whose football career incorporated 48 goals in 80 appearances for England and winning the Golden Boot as top scorer in the 1986 World Cup. âHow pathetically spineless,â Morgan wrote on Twitter. âI now demand the BBC suspend every presenter who has made public comments about news or current affairs â starting with Sir David Attenborough and Lord Sugar.â
The even bigger hypocrisy here is that the people celebrating Linekerâs banishment are usually the ones who are the loudest when it comes to calling for freedom of speech. How ironic that the people who would ordinarily label Linekerâs supporters as âwokeâ and âsnowflakesâ temporarily seem to have parked their views opposing cancel culture.
So, yes, who would want to appear on Match of the Day in these circumstances? Not a man with Mark Chapmanâs principles, apparently. Nor Alex Scott. Micah Richards and Jermaine Jenas, who were due a night off, have both made it clear they would have said no.
So where did that leave the BBCâs flagship football show of almost 60 years?
In trouble, is the short answer. It means there will be nobody in the studio to take us through the latest VAR cockups or debate why Tottenham have gone so Spursy again. No Gary, no Wrighty, no Alan. Nobody at all, in fact. Last night even Match of the Dayâs commentators confirmed they will be stepping down from the broadcast.
As commentators on MOTD, we have decided to step down from tomorrow nightâs broadcast. We are comforted that football fans who want to watch their teams should still be able to do so, as management can use World Feed commentary if they wish.
â Steve Wilson (@Wilsonfooty) March 10, 2023
And the strangest thing is that the BBC did not see it coming.
Itâs them, not Lineker, who have scored the most spectacular own goal.
Does Sutton do a phone in show, hope he pulls it
Will the league itself go ahead at this rate?
@Cheasty, I canât find your post about the Tory efforts to undermine the BBC to dismantle it. But I think youâre giving them toouch credit. They are deeply stupid people.
Heâs 50 today I believe so possibly booked the day off