The BBC is set to back down in its row with Gary Lineker over his use of social media and reinstate the presenter as host of Match of the Day.
Lineker had been stood down from the flagship Premier League highlights show on the weekend after criticising the government’s immigration policy and comparing language used by the Conservative party with 1930s Germany.
A raft of BBC Sport presenters, pundits and commentators stepped back from their duties working for broadcaster this weekend in solidarity with Lineker, including the Match of the Day analysts Ian Wright and Alan Shearer and the Radio 5 Live and Match of the Day 2 presenter Mark Chapman, forcing the BBC to air stripped-down highlights packages without the usual studio presentation.
Lineker refused the BBC’s request to effectively take back and apologise for his tweet, while the broadcaster’s director general, Tim Davie, also dug in, saying he would “absolutely not” be resigning over the chaos.
But the BBC is expected to apologise for the furore, according to Sky Sports, and will reinstate Lineker as the programme’s host.
The tweet by Lineker at the centre of the BBC storm criticised the government’s “stop the boats” message and accused the Conservatives of an “immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s”.
more to follow...
