In the UK there is much discussion about the suspension of Gary Lineker, the hugely popular host of Match of the Day, the main football program produced by the BBC. Lineker, who is the company’s highest-paid conductor, was suspended after posting some criticisms of the British government’s new immigration law proposal on his Twitter account, and above all the tones in which the government spoke about it.
However, Lineker’s suspension has provoked demonstrations of solidarity from many of the station’s other anchors and presenters, who suspended themselves from their roles to show support for their colleague, effectively preventing the BBC from broadcasting a series of sports programs on various platforms.
Gary Lineker was one of the strongest, most respected and most popular English footballers. He is known among fans, among other things, for having scored 48 goals for the England national team, but also because in the sixteen years he played football, with Barcelona, Tottenham and the national team, he never received or a yellow card nor a red card; he is also remembered as the author of that famous phrase about Germany always winning the World Cup. Leads Match of the Day since 1999, and is very famous: their Twitter she has nearly 9 million followers.
Last week he posted a tweet on his personal account in which he compared the language used by British government ministers to speak about asylum seekers to that “used by Germany in the 1930s”. A comparison defined as “offensive” by the British Interior Minister Suella Braverman, and criticized by many other government ministers, by some members of the Conservative party and by the conservative-oriented media.
There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s, and I’m out of order?
— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) March 7, 2023
The BBC announced on Friday that it had suspended Gary Lineker for breaching the broadcaster’s impartiality guidelines. The news had been much commented and seen as one of the signs of the greater control exercised by the conservatives over the public broadcaster. By Saturday morning, however, it had become clear that Match of the Day it could not have gone on the air as usual: none of the other commentators on the programme, regular guests and possible substitutes had said they were willing to replace Lineker and in general to participate in the broadcast.
The protest then spread significantly: many hosts of other BBC sports programs announced that they would not work this weekend to show their support for Lineker: the BBC therefore found itself having to rearrange its schedule at the last minute. A sports program that normally airs before games has been replaced by an antiques programme, another has been replaced by a gardening focus. The boycott also affected radio programmes: a live match commentary program was replaced by a podcast.
Lineker has not publicly commented on his suspension. A BBC spokesman said he would be suspended from hosting the programme: “until we have an agreed and clear position on his use of social media.” This evening Match of the Day will be broadcast, but without hosts and commentators in the studio: only videos of the matches will be shown.