Gary Lineker is an icon. Not just because he can sum up complicated football facts. Not just because he was an outstanding striker. But also because he takes a clear political position. A tweet from him leads to an escalation that plunges the BBC into a deep crisis.
The man who rocked the BBC, a major British institution, with a tweet watched a football game on Saturday. “He’s watching the Leicester game,” said Harry Lineker, son of 62-year-old Gary Lineker, as he left the family home in south-west London, which was besieged by reporters, to walk the dog. The “Guardian” reported this in a live ticker that documents the extent of the Lineker affair every minute. It’s about big politics, it’s about the BBC and who gets to say what and where.
Lineker was suspended by the BBC on Friday after days of debate and a tweet about British immigration policy and a new Conservative government draft law. The former footballer, now the BBC’s highest-paid expert, had compared the language of the government to that of Germany in the 1930s. A tsunami of outrage followed, rocking the BBC. In the end, the broadcaster was left without experts, commentators and interview partners for the country’s most important football show, “Match of the Day”.
There was support for Lineker in Leicester.
(Photo: picture alliance / empics)
Hopes that the game scenes would at least be accompanied by the commentary of the so-called world feed were dashed during the day. According to The Athletic, the BBC has no rights to the international TV commentary. As the BBC has made a commitment to the Premier League to broadcast match highlights, it will not cancel the program but will broadcast it on a 20-minute version, The Times reported.
It’s about British immigration policy
The BBC was also unable to handle other TV programs related to the current Premier League matchday. The moderators had also shown solidarity with Lineker. As did the English professional footballers’ union PFA, which said it supports players who do not want to be interviewed for “Match of the Day”. “I’m not from England. But I don’t see any reason why someone should be forced to resign after such statements,” said Jürgen Klopp after Liverpool’s 0-1 draw at Bournemouth. “But that’s the world we live in. Everyone’s just trying to do everything right and always say the right thing. If you don’t do that, you create a shitstorm that we didn’t have when we were young. ” Klopp left open whether he would have given the BBC an interview. He said he wasn’t asked.
Suella Bravermann triggered the BBC earthquake with her draft law.
(Photo: picture alliance/dpa/UK Parliament/PA Media)
The whole tragedy took its course a few days ago. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Interior Minister Suella Braverman presented a bill earlier this week that would deny people who have entered Germany irregularly the right to seek asylum. Criticism of this came not only from the opposition, but also from the UN refugee organization UNHCR, which accused Great Britain of breaching international obligations. Right winger Braverman had previously spoken of an “invasion” by boat people. And that despite the fact that Great Britain only takes in a small number of refugees compared to Germany.
Lineker then described the conservative British government’s new asylum law as “more than terrible”. When criticized that he was “out of order”, he replied: “This is an immeasurably cruel policy, directed against the most vulnerable people, in a language that is that of Germany in the 1930’s, and I’m not entirely out of my mind?” Braverman accused Lineker of trivializing the Holocaust. Numerous conservative MPs called for consequences for the ex-footballer. But Lineker didn’t want to apologize. Then on Friday the suspension.
Kingdom Divided
Lineker is an icon in England. His word carries weight, as evidenced not least by his 8.8 million followers on Twitter. There he had already expressed criticism of the government in the past. Above all, the presenter, who works independently for the BBC, spoke out openly against Brexit and thus made powerful enemies among the Tories. The BBC has been under pressure from Brexit supporters and right-wing populists in the conservative Tory party for years. According to them, the public broadcaster is riddled with left-leaning journalists who supposedly represent an urban elite. Actions like the Lineker case seem like anticipatory obedience on the part of the BBC to avoid such criticism.
It’s just the latest in a long line of rows that have seen top journalists turn their backs on the BBC. In addition, the government repeatedly threatened to abolish broadcasting contributions. Freezing contributions has already led to painful savings. Broadcasting fees in the UK are currently around €190 a year.
The upheaval surrounding the Lineker affair also runs through the UK press landscape. On the one hand there are conservative, pro-government media such as The Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph, and on the other liberal newspapers such as The Guardian. They face each other irreconcilably and paint a picture of a divided society.
Ex-footballers rage against the government
“It’s the perfect distraction for this administration,” said Ian Wright, one of the MOTD experts, on his Wrighty’s House podcast: “You need Gary Lineker to distract from all the other issues. To me, it’s a humanitarian and not a political question. They have no empathy. They want this culture war between right and left, between woke and not woke. That’s the distraction.” The former Arsenal pro is far from alone in this opinion. Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the Labor Party in the House of Commons, told LBC: “Now the debate shifts to Gary and the BBC, ignoring what I think is an infamous law that we are going to debate in Parliament on Monday. “
In addition to the political question, the Lineker case also spotlights the BBC. The major British institution has pledged itself to impartiality, and not everyone believes this is still possible in the UK’s post-Brexit heated mood. The critics also refer to the BBC’s double standards, which reach up to management levels. The focus is on BBC chairman Richard Sharp, who, according to media reports, is said to have helped the then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to get a loan of 800,000 British pounds. There have been suspicions since mid-January that this helped Sharp become chairman of the BBC. In fact, he took up the BBC post shortly after the incident in late 2020. The Chair of the BBC is appointed by the Monarch on the proposal of the Prime Minister and Minister for Culture. “This is a bunch of complete nonsense – complete nonsense,” Boris Johnson angrily rejected the allegations at the end of January.
Will the BBC snuggle in front of the right wing?
Not only Lineker got it on Friday. The BBC didn’t stop at the 96-year-old British wildlife filmmaker Sir David Attenborough either. From his new documentary series “Wild Isles”, a series about the natural beauty of the British Isles, only five of the six episodes produced will be shown on linear TV. The sixth program disappeared from the media library for fear of negative reactions from right-wing circles. The BBC denied the episode, which aims to take a hard-hitting look at the destruction of nature in the UK, was ever intended to air. The “Telegraph” had previously attacked the BBC because the documentary series was partly financed by the environmental protection organizations WWF and RSPB. These are “two organizations that have already been criticized for their lobbying,” the newspaper wrote.
Commenting on the Lineker affair, former BBC director-general Greg Dyke said on BBC 4: “The real problem today is that the BBC has undermined its own credibility by doing this. Because from the outside it appears that it has she bowed to pressure from the government.” As the “Times” reported, it currently seems very likely that Lineker, who was paid 1.5 million euros by the BBC, will no longer work for the British institution in the future.