Rio Ferdinand was in contact with both Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker as the BBC chaos over ensued the weekend.
The channel was plunged into panic over the weekend after the Match of the Day host was effectively suspended for his tweet relating to the government’s asylum policies. A number of pundits including Shearer and colleague Ian Wright elected not to appear on the company's flagship sports programme in a show of support.
A vast array of other shows such as Final Score, Football Focus and Match of the Day 2 also suffered as commentators and hosts continued to pull out. It also spread from TV to radio with shows including Fighting Talk pulled from the air. Finally, on Monday, a deal was agreed for Lineker to return, with normal sports programming to follow suit.
Now former Manchester United defender Ferdinand has revealed he got in touch with Shearer as the fallout began - jokingly claiming he played a huge role in the ex-England captain's decision to pull out of Match of the Day.
Speaking on his Vibe with Five podcast, he said: “Alan Shearer I have a voicenote, I'll play the voicenote I left him. This is before he made his decision so I'm taking full credit for pushing him into making the decision to join [Ian Wright] Wrighty and [Gary] Lineker.
“I've just seen a tweet from Wrighty. He just said ‘listen, I've told the BBC that I'm out this weekend, it's not for me. Solidarity with Big Links’.
“What the f*** is big Al gonna do? What's Shearer gonna do? Where are you, where are ya?! And after that, he made the statement that he wasn't gonna we're gonna be on Match of the Day. So obviously it was down to [me].”
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Whilst Ferdinand got in touch with Shearer, he further detailed a conversation with Lineker and revealed exactly what the former Barcelona star’s stance was throughout the crisis.
He added: “I text Gary Lineker the day it came out. Everyone's Whatsapp group was like ours, it went nuts!
“My Mrs was going what the hell's going on. I said 'don't talk to me for a minute, I have to go through the last hundred text messages that have popped through' It was mad, I text Gary saying 'how are we doing, how's everything' knowing it was a s***storm going crazy in the media. He was just Gary as Gary always is, calm, cool, collected. Brushed it off.
“It is a crazy situation I think. My generation and generations before me, and this generation as well, incidents happen and these situations keep rearing their head.”
Lineker has since penned an emotional statement thanking his colleagues for their support, whilst confirming his return to the BBC for the foreseeable future.
