Gary Lineker will step back from presenting Match of the Day until an agreement is reached on his use of social media, the BBC has confirmed.
The decision follows Lineker’s criticism of the government’s new asylum policy on Twitter earlier this week.
Lineker compared the announcement of the policy to words akin to “Germany in the 30s” and his comments were met with widespread backlash.
Ian Wright, a pundit for Match of the Day, has revealed he will stand in solidarity with Lineker and has boycotted Saturday night’s show.
In a statement, the BBC said Linker’s behaviour breached their guidelines and stressed that he should “keep well away” from taking sides on political controversies.
The statement read: “When it comes to leading our football and sports coverage, Gary is second to none.
“We have never said that Gary should be an opinion-free zone, or that he can’t have a view on issues that matter to him, but we have said that he should keep well away from taking sides on party political issues or political controversies.”
VIDEO: Gary Lineker to stop presenting Match of the Day
Former BBC presenter Dan Walker has now revealed that the decision to step down was not Lineker’s.
The 5News host read out a message from his former colleague, which read: “they [the BBC] have told me I have to step back”.
Walker then clarified: “Gary Lineker wants to continue to present Match of the Day and is not apologising.
“It’s a BBC decision to force him not to present the programme at the moment.”
The occasional Match of the Day host also tweeted his support for Lineker on Twitter, writing: “I used to sit in for @GaryLineker on MOTD… not sure I’d fancy it this weekend. What a mess.”
VIDEO: Dan Walker reads out text from Gary Lineker
More to follow…
This is a breaking news article that is currently being updated. More details will be published shortly. Please refresh this page for the latest information.
GiveMeSport (GMS) is a sport media outlet providing exclusive player and manager interviews, and providing fans with up-to-date features, match previews and match reviews. We share breaking domestic and European sports news, results, fixtures and stats, as well as photos and videos on trending sports topics. As the number one Facebook Sport Publisher, GMS reaches over 30M unique visitors monthly, including 26M Facebook fans, more than ESPN (19.2M) or SkySports (11.64M).
GIVEMESPORT is part of the Snack Media Group, a leading independent sports digital media company with over 70 million sports fans, specialising in multi-channel content creation, distributed at scale, through data driven engagement strategies.
