When will they learn their lesson?
Make it football three, government nil after this morning’s confirmation that Gary Lineker will return to the presenters chair for this weekend’s FA Cup coverage.
From the outset this bizarre circus has been framed as Lineker versus the BBC. But the reality is that those at the top of the corporation are so intrinsically linked to the Tories that it should only be framed as a decision made on behalf of the government rather than an independent broadcaster.
And now those Conservative MPs find themselves back in a familiar position where the power of the country’s sport has made them look utterly daft.
Good luck to any minister willing to try again.
Lineker must be commended for standing firm and refusing to bow to the pressure to apologise. Equally praise must go to so many of his BBC colleagues, in particular those who do not make millions of pounds for their work, for showing that strong industrial action can still work.
Yet it was also another example of how powerful football continues to be in this country.
Within a couple of hours of Friday’s decision to effectively suspend Lineker, despite the vague wording of the BBC’s initial statement attempting to make it seem like some sort of mutual decision, clubs were considering whether they should offer solidarity by refusing to speak with BBC journalists before and after the weekend’s games.
In any case there was no need because there was no one available to interview them - but it still showed the value of a united front.
Then there was the seething anger from fans. Match of the Day is not appointment viewing to the same extent as 25 years ago, even if the quality of analysis is immeasurably better, because everyone can access highlights of games on YouTube hours earlier. But it remains iconic, an institution of the country’s greatest passion and export.
While some left-field predictions of fans across the country chanting Lineker’s name during matches did not become reality, the anger was clear. And that makes it all the more confounding that the powers in Westminster remain so naive to the depth of football’s force.
They should have learnt their lesson during the Marcus Rashford free school meals debacle, when one young footballer and his PR team made Matt Hancock among others appear - neither for the first nor last time - woefully out of touch with reality.
Not that it has put them off dismal analogies which exacerbate their cluelessness. “Left-wing striker” Gary Lineker, anyone?
Instead of taking heed from Rashford’s success in forcing change, some, most notably Priti Patel, tried to take the game on again and criticise players for having the temerity to make a peaceful and inoffensive anti-racism gesture.
The irritating howls of "stick to football" from public representatives whose raison d’etre appears to be to sow division were a grotesque attempt to muzzle freedom of speech.
But the likes of Tyrone Mings rose above it, responding with the correct amount of force that enabled them to continue on the moral high ground, and continued to take a knee. Soon the fans, no doubt influenced by the vitriolic hate that emanates from chunks of the Conservative party, who booed the players for their simple act of raising awareness of racism were silenced.
(Vital caveat: the message did not get through to everyone as Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho were all racially abused for missing penalties against Italy).
That a similarly mind-bending decision to pull an episode of David Attenborough’s latest series over the fear of a right-wing backlash (they also count many climate-change deniers in their ranks, unsurprisingly) received barely 1% of the same ire speaks volumes for the power of football.
Although the ceaseless fascination with this story has at least diluted the focus on another week of widespread industrial action. Doctors have begun a 72 hour walkout, to be joined by teachers on Wednesday and Thursday with train drivers striking for the umpteenth time.
Lineker’s tweet was used as a dead cat, something new for people to concentrate on rather than a fresh wave of protest by frontline workers who are fed up with disintegrating working conditions.
But, as with so many other things, the cat ended up back at the door of the government and their associates. To paraphrase Omar Little: you come at football, you best not miss.
