Football
Gary Lineker reflects on ‘the damage I did to the BBC’ after they ‘moved the goalposts’
Gary Lineker claims to have no regrets about publicly criticising the former government’s stance on immigration – although he is still pained by the ‘damage’ it did to the BBC. A row over Lineker’s duty to be impartial erupted in 2023 after he called an asylum policy ‘immeasurably cruel’ on social media and likened the language used in a promotional video to ‘Germany in the 30s’.
The former England international, who has hosted the broadcaster’s flagship football highlights show Match of the Day since 1999, was temporarily told to step back until an agreement was reached over his social media use. Alan Shearer and Ian Wright boycotted the show out of solidarity, and one episode was aired without pundits in May 2023.
