British soccer fans tuning in on Saturday to watch Football Focus instead found a three-year-old episode of the antiques show Bargain Hunt, the unexpected result of an escalating furor involving the BBC, the UK government and the country’s best known sports presenter.
(Bloomberg) —
British soccer fans tuning in on Saturday to watch Football Focus instead found a three-year-old episode of the antiques show Bargain Hunt, the unexpected result of an escalating furor involving the BBC, the UK government and the country’s best known sports presenter.
Match of the Day, a Saturday evening staple for football for almost six decades, will be aired without commentary after the BBC suspended main host Gary Lineker because it said he breached impartiality guidelines by sending tweets critical of the government’s asylum policy. Several other presenters on the show then said they wouldn’t turn up for work, forcing the BBC to apologize to millions of armchair fans.
“The BBC will only be able to bring limited sport programming this weekend,” a spokesperson said in an email. “We are sorry for these changes which we recognise will be disappointing for BBC sport fans.”
The issue of immigration has dogged successive prime ministers and is high on the national agenda again, while the Conservative government has long been wary of what it regards as a left-leaning broadcaster. But it’s rare for such a matter to cut across into the country’s national sport and primetime.
Central Figure
In axing one of the biggest names in television — and someone who was formerly feted on the football field as a national hero — the BBC has inadvertently made Lineker a central figure in a polarizing debate about how the government should treat migrants making their way to England in small boats across the Channel.
In his tweet, Lineker likened the government’s migrant policy to that of Germany in the 1930s.
“I hope that the current situation between Gary Lineker and the BBC can be resolved in a timely manner, but it is rightly a matter for them, not the government,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement. “While that process is ongoing, it is important that we maintain perspective, particularly given the seriousness of the issue at hand.”
Some of the BBC’s best-known pundits, including Alan Shearer, Ian Wright and Alex Scott, declared solidarity with Lineker and said they wouldn’t appear on TV this weekend. Analyst and former player Dion Dublin echoed them on Twitter, “In Solidarity with my BBC Sport colleagues NO 5live for me today!”
Former BBC director-general Greg Dyke said the BBC “undermined its own credibility” by taking Lineker off air. Humza Yousaf, who’s running to be Scotland’s next first minister, told the Press Association that the BBC is caving in to pressure from a “right-wing government.”
Author and journalist Matthew Syed, who also presents a BBC Radio show, said Lineker’s high profile transcends sports journalism and viewers should expect impartiality from people with his status.
“I fear for (the) future of the licence fee when its biggest voices are permitted (to) make divisive political statements, for or against” the government, Syed wrote on Twitter.
Lineker has been critical of the Conservative government in the past and spoken out about issues including the National Health Service and the environment. He spent his unexpected Saturday off work at Stamford Bridge watching Chelsea beat Leicester City, his hometown team where he spent the majority of his playing career.
(Adds comment from Sunak in fourth paragraph)
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