This blog has been running for about 40 times as long as tonight’s Match of the Day replacement show so we are going to close it now but you can read all coverage of the row here. Good night
A summary of today's developments
The BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, said he will not resign over the fallout from Gary Lineker being asked to step back from the Match of the Day programme in an impartiality row. Davie also apologised for schedule changes after several BBC TV and radio sport shows were pulled at late notice including Football Focus, Final Score, 606 and Fighting Talk.
Match of the Day was rebranded to Premier League Highlights in a 20-minute programme this evening with no theme tune, commentary, post-match analysis, interviews or statistics on the highlights.
The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said the issue is for the BBC and Gary Lineker to resolve but he stands by his immigration plan.
The BBC chairman, Richard Sharp, is “totally unable” to handle the Gary Lineker row, according to Labour’s shadow culture secretary, Lucy Powell. She has written to the culture secretary, Lucy Frazer to demand Sharp’s position is “urgently clarified”, saying his involvement in arranging an £800,000 loan facility for Boris Johnson has “profoundly damaged the perception of the BBC’s impartiality and independence from government”.
BBC Scotland apologised for changes to its programming. Sportscene had an amended format similar to Match of the Day while some of the Sportsound slot on Radio Scotland was replaced by pre-recorded material.
BBC Radio Wales’s Call Rob Phillips programme, a sport phone-in, did not broadcast this evening. Instead there was a replay of a classical concert celebrating 100 years of the BBC in Wales.
Gary Lineker was spotted watching Leicester City v Chelsea with his son George on Saturday.
Updated
