BBC bosses are expected to enter into crunch talks with sports broadcaster Gary Lineker in a bid to resolve the crisis which impacted sports programming at the weekend.
Several BBC Sport colleagues refused to work at the weekend, stating they were standing in ‘solidarity’ with the Match of the Day presenter who was asked to “step aside” from presenting the programme following a tweet last week on the government migrant policy. The refusal to work left other programmes such as Football Focus and Final Score not airing.
The BBC said on Friday that they asked the former England footballer to step back from presenting the football highlights show until “we’ve got an agreed and clear position on his use of social media.” The 62-year-old has been the face of the Match of the Day brand since 1999.
Sources have told news outlets that talks between Lineker and the BBC are “moving in the right direction.” It is expected that an agreement could be reached as early as today.
Lineker tweeted last week that language used by the government in relation to people crossing the channel seeking asylum was not too “dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 1930s.” The tweet prompted pushback from the government and has divided opinion in relation to being a BBC personality and impartiality rules that the corporation self imposes.
Accosted by reporters on Sunday, Lineker said that he wasn’t able to “say anything at the moment.” It is expected that he will have further discussions with the Director-General of the BBC, Tim Davie, this week in bid to resolve the issue. Gary Lineker has said on the record that he won’t apologise for the tweet or refrain from tweeting in ‘what he believes’.
Tim Davie was interviewed by BBC News on Saturday, where he said that they were “working very hard” to resolve the issue and that he wants Gary Lineker back on air. During the interview, he was asked whether he would be resigning over the issue, in which he replied “absolutely not.”
Match of the Day was broadcast on Saturday without any presenter, pundits or commentary on the Premier League matches. This led to just a 20-minute broadcast, which pulled in 2.5 million viewers from 10.30pm. The shortened highlights programme was up around 500,000 on last week’s normal edition.
“We are sorry for these changes which we recognise will be disappointing for BBC sport fans. We are working hard to resolve the situation and hope to do so soon.” – BBC Spokesperson
The issue continued into Sunday, with BBC Two’s coverage of the WSL lunchtime game using world-feed commentary and Match of the Day 2 producing a similar programme to its Saturday’s counterpart.
