BBC apologise over changes to weekend’s sporting schedule amid Gary Lineker row | Sportscene to run amended format similar to Match of the Day-
Alex Scott and other pundits have pulled out of presenting the Football Focus programme, in solidarity with Gary Lineker, with Sportscene also impacted.
Pundits have also pulled out of presenting the Final Score programme with the show also cancelled.
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Hide AdJason Mohammad said he will not be presenting the BBC’s Final Score programme on Saturday.
Pundit Glenn Murray also said he had pulled out of appearing on Football Focus and Final Score on Saturday.
Sports reporter Marc Webber tweeted: “As Final Score reporters, we have decided to stand down from our duties today in solidarity with Gary Lineker. As a result, no Final Score will be broadcast today.
BBC has pulled its Radio 5 Live Sports coverage, saying there had been a change of schedule.
Former England footballers and MOTD regulars including Alan Shearer and Ian Wright announced on Friday that they would be boycotting the show in solidarity with Lineker.
We’ll have live updates and the latest news regarding football programming on the BBC.
RECAP: Football Focus dropped as Alex Scott pulls out in support of Gary Lineker | Final Score cancelled | BBC 5Live coverage pulled
The Daily Mail’s Mike Keegan has tweeted reports that the BBC’s 5 Live sports coverage may also be pulled... One to watch?
Gary Lineker did not answer questions from reporters when he left his home in Barnes, south-west London, on Saturday morning.
He was asked “how do you think this has been handled?”, “is this the end of your BBC career?”, “have you had any discussions with the BBC overnight?” and “do you expect to resign?”, but did not respond.
BBC pundits boycotting Match of the Day and other BBC shows to support Gary Lineker
- Ian Wright - posted on Twitter: “Everybody knows what Match of the Day means to me, but I’ve told the BBC I won’t be doing it tomorrow. Solidarity.”
- Alan Shearer - posted on Twitter: “I have informed the BBC that I won’t be appearing on MOTD tomorrow night.”
- Alex Scott - posted a GIF of Bernie Sanders on Twitter saying: “Nah! Not me”.
- Micah Richards - former Manchester City and Aston Villa footballer posted on Twitter: “I was not due to be working on MOTD tomorrow, but if I was, I would find myself taking the same decision that @IanWright0 & @alanshearer have.”
- Jermaine Jenas - former Queens Park Rangers and Nottingham Forest footballer tweeted: “Been on air with the one show. I wasn’t down to be doing match of the day tomorrow, but if I was I would have said no and stood with my fellow pundits and @GaryLineker.”
- Mark Chapman
- Glenn Murray - former Bouremouth and Brighton and Hove Albion footballer walked out of BBC’s Football Focus alongside Alex Scott.
- Anita Asante - former Chelsea and England Women’s footballer joined Alex Scott by stepping aside from BBC’s Football Focus.
- Jason Mohammad - the host of BBC’s Final Score tweeted: “As you know, Final Score is a TV show very close to my heart. However - I have this morning informed the BBC that I will not be presenting the show this afternoon on BBC One.”
BREAKING: Final Score reporters ‘stand down from duties today’
Sports reporter Marc Webber tweeted: “As Final Score reporters, we have decided to stand down from our duties today in solidarity with Gary Lineker. As a result, no Final Score will be broadcast today.
“We all love the BBC and are proud to work for such a great broadcaster.
“More importantly, we consider it an absolute honour to keep people up to date on football on a Saturday at 3pm. A lot of work had already gone into today’s show. Many of us are freelancers -only paid per game. We have made a salary sacrifice today.
“But I can’t stand by and see a colleague unsupported like this for a personal opinion which did not break BBC Editorial Guidelines. Please also be kind to other BBC Sport colleagues who will still be working because they will not have the luxury of choice we have.”
Lets go back to Gary Lineker opening the BBC coverage of World Cup with a monologue on Qatar human rights abuses. Source: BBC
Dion Dublin, who was scheduled to be on for BBC 5Live, has pulled out of today’s coverage.
He tweeted”In Solidarity with my BBC Sport colleagues NO 5live for me today!”
The BBC has “undermined its own credibility” by taking Gary Lineker off air, a former director-general of the corporation has said as the fallout from an impartiality row continues.
Greg Dyke, the BBC director-general between 2000 and 2004 and a former FA chairman, said the broadcaster was “mistaken” in standing Lineker down.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the precedent at the corporation is that “news and current affairs employees are expected to be impartial and not the rest”.
“If you start applying the rules of news and current affairs to everybody who works for the BBC, where does it end?”, he said.
He added: “There is a long-established precedent in the BBC that is, that if you’re an entertainment presenter or you’re a football presenter, then you are not bound by those same (impartiality) rules.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the Gary Lineker tweet row has shifted focus away from what the “disgraceful” Illegal Immigration Bill.
He told LBC on Saturday: “He’s got a perfect right to express an opinion even within the BBC’s own code. They are allowed to express opinions… of a partisan nature, providing it doesn’t impinge on their area of work. His area is sport.
“Others, Alan Sugar and many others, have made the most partisan comments in the past… against me particularly. I remember it very, very well and absolutely nothing was done despite complaints being made to the BBC.
“They’ve sort of come down like a ton of bricks on Gary Lineker, and whilst I support what Gary said, and I think he’s a decent human being in the way he’s put it and said it, unfortunately the whole debate now is shifting on to Gary and the BBC and ignoring the issue of this, I think, disgraceful piece of legislation that Parliament’s about to debate on Monday.”
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