Football: BBC boss will not step down as Lineker removal sparks sports coverage chaos

LONDON – The BBC’s director general Tim Davie said he will not resign, after the publicly funded broadcaster’s sport service was decimated on Saturday by a backlash on Gary Lineker’s removal as Match of the Day host.

“Everyone wants to calmly resolve the situation,” Davie said in a BBC interview.

Lineker was

forced to “step back” from his duties

presenting the flagship Premier League highlights show, after

accusing the British government

of using Nazi-era rhetoric in tackling illegal immigration.

The BBC said on Friday that England’s fourth-highest goalscorer of all-time had breached guidelines on impartiality, and the corporation would seek “an agreed and clear position on his use of social media” before an on-screen return.

However, the decision caused chaos to scheduled sports programming across the BBC’s television and radio output.

Former England strikers Ian Wright and Alan Shearer were among the pundits who refused to take up their usual roles on Match of the Day, followed by the programme’s commentators.

As a result, the longest-running football television programme in the world was aired for the first time without a presenter, pundits or even commentary in a shortened 20-minute highlights package of six matches from the English top flight.

Weekend preview show Football Focus and results programme Final Score were also pulled from the schedule, while BBC Radio 5Live’s coverage was disrupted.

When asked if he should resign over the crisis, Davie replied: “Absolutely not.”

“I think that my job is to serve licence-fee payers and deliver a BBC that is really focused on world-class impartial landmark output, and I look forward to us resolving this situation and looking forward to delivering that.

“To be clear, success for me is Gary gets back on air and together we are giving to the audiences that world-class sports coverage which, as I say, I’m sorry we haven’t been able to deliver today.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he hoped the stand-off can be “resolved in a timely manner”.

However, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said it was wrong of Lineker to comment on government policy.

The row was sparked by Lineker’s response to a video in which Home Secretary Suella Braverman unveiled plans to stop migrants crossing the Channel on small boats.

Lineker, the BBC’s highest-paid star, wrote on Twitter: “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.”

The BBC’s move sparked criticism from politicians and public figures, many of whom accused it of buckling to demands from Conservative lawmakers.

Opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer said the BBC “got this one badly wrong and now they’re very, very exposed”, while a petition calling for Lineker to be reinstated has attracted over 190,000 signatures. AFP,
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