Without using too many strong words: You won’t find a headline that hasn’t chronicled Lineker’s case in Britain, or a newspaper that hasn’t tried to extract details of the experience from colleagues at the gate.
“I haven’t spent hours on football in ten years,” sighs BBC football correspondent Andrew Clement.
The comprehensive and full sports service has been cut across all platforms on Saturday and Sunday. Commentaries, analyzes and even interviews were missing from football matches, to which fans and spectators are so accustomed. Record-breaking listeners were recorded by private radio stations, because initially there was no one to broadcast. Strictly the sports news on TV and the popular program Match of the Day, which since 1964 has published the results of League One weekend duels, the creators had to shorten the track from the usual ninety minutes to almost twenty minutes.
All this because of one tweet, in which the popular moderator and former football actor Gary Lineker criticized the new law prepared by the British government without a handkerchief.
It does not even bother the United Nations or many humanitarian organizations, because it can prevent migrants crossing the English Channel from applying for asylum in the UK.
It’s a cruel exchange policy for the most vulnerable, Lineker wrote on social media. Plus it was used in Germany in the 1920s with a different language than that.
After a few days, the noise he had been making subsided without my knowledge. He confirmed on Monday that he had agreed with the BBC on the direction and screens of Match of the Day and other football studies as the main television..
What happened in the meantime was, in many ways, uneventful.
When, Friday, Lineker refused to apologize for his harsh words on stage and revealed that he stood by his supervisor, television management announced that they would pull him from the program. Until I clarify my stance on the use of social media.
Lineker was immediately supported by colleagues and viewers.
“You all know what the first game of the day means to me, but in solidarity with Gary I won’t be sent on Saturday,” Ian Wright, one of the experts, who was also briefly asked by Alan Shearer, declared quickly. Four hours later, the personal files of individual newspapers and the BBC director were filled with messages: We are not going to work on the weekend!
This sparked a backlash in the media giant’s editorial office.
On Saturday and Sunday, we will only be able to view and listen to a limited amount of news. We apologise, the BBC has announced that it is working hard to resolve the dispute as quickly as possible.
The paper had been waiting for Gary Lineker outside his house at the weekend, and they wanted to ask about his split from the BBC.
It happened after the weekend, and on Monday Lineker told fans that he was on the screens.
He thanked not only his colleagues, who, in the behavior of the leader, restricted freedom of speech. In support of him, a petition was created, which was signed by more than 200,000 people in two days. According to editor-in-chief Tim Davie, the BBC has agreed with Linker to follow editorial guidelines until the social media rules review is complete.
The 22-year-old Lineker is one of the most popular sports figures in England. He played for Leicester, Tottenham and Barcelona, and became the best goalkeeper in the 1986 World Cup.
After his career, he began to appear on television as an expert, and later moved to the role of moderator, and the British giant paid him 40 million crowns a year.
Almost nine million people follow him on Twitter, and not only there, he makes frequent comments on political and other general topics. For example, he spoke out against Brexit, and it didn’t even matter when he harshly criticized Qatar as the host of the BBC’s World Cup.
Even then he was not impartial, as the Code of the World forbade newspapers, but when he touched the British government, the BBC snubbed him because of his age.
Although the past few days have been difficult, Lineker wrote Monday, they cannot easily compare to what it is like to flee home from a pursuer or wolf and search for a loved one in a faraway land. He added that it was good to see so many of you sympathizing with their situation.
This is also proof that you can’t let your vision slip away.
And the BBC, relenting after days and waves of denials, knows it has made its head on the Lineker affair in the public eye.
“Alcohol scholar. Twitter lover. Zombieaholic. Hipster-friendly coffee fanatic.”