Gary Lineker has missed another edition of Match of the Day a fortnight after returning to the BBC’s football highlights flagship following a brief suspension.
The presenter – who is the corporation’s highest paid star – was pulled off air after becoming embroiled in an impartiality row after comparing the language used to launch a new Government asylum policy with 1930s Germany.
This plunged BBC Sport into chaos for a weekend, with MOTD forced to air in silence after Lineker’s BBC Sport colleagues pulled out of the programme en mass in solidarity.
This time, however, there was a far more straightforward explanation, despite his absence raising some eyebrows among the show’s viewers.
Why was Gary Lineker not on Match of the Day this week?
Lineker, perhaps understandably given the furore which has surrounded him in recent weeks, made sure to explain why he would be missing ahead of Saturday’s show.
He tweeted: “Just so there’s no misunderstanding, I won’t be doing @BBCMOTD tonight. I’m not suspended, just on holiday. Back next week.”
Just so there’s no misunderstanding, I won’t be doing @BBCMOTD tonight. I’m not suspended, just on holiday. Back next week.
— Gary Lineker(@GaryLineker) April 1, 2023
His statement prompted a pithy response from the Monty Python comedian Eric Idle, who made reference to the boycott by Lineker’s BBC Sport colleagues by tweeting: “I am going to go on holiday tonight in sympathy with Gary.”
Mark Chapman was instead in the MOTD hotseat on Saturday, and made no reference to the absence of the show’s usual presenter.
Like Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, who joined him in the studio, Chapman was one of the BBC stars to step down in solidarity during Lineker’s suspension.
Why was Gary Lineker suspended from MOTD?
The row erupted on Tuesday 7 March, when Gary Lineker wrote on Twitter about a Home Office video in which Suella Braverman unveiled the Government’s plans to stop migrants crossing the Channel on small boats and said the UK is being “overwhelmed”.
The MOTD presenter tweeted: “Good heavens, this is beyond awful.”
Told by another user he was “out of order”, the former England striker added: “We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries.
“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, and I’m out of order?”
After making the comments, Lineker quickly faced criticism from Downing Street, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer and Ms Braverman, who accused him of “diminishing the unspeakable tragedy” of the Holocaust.
He refused to back down over his stance, and on Friday 10 March, the BBC announced that Lineker was to “step back” from presenting Match of the Day.
However, the show was forced to air in silence on Saturday after pundits and commentators refused to take part in it in solidarity with the show’s suspended presenter.
The 20-minute show was rebranded as Premier League Highlights and it did not have its normal title sequence – including its iconic theme tune, which has featured on the show since August 1970.
Lineker was reinstated for the following week’s show – in a statement agreed between the presenter and the BBC, the corporation announced it would be conducting a review of its social media guidelines.
He tweeted: “After a surreal few days, I’m delighted that we have navigated a way through this.
“I want to thank you all for the incredible support, particularly my colleagues at BBC Sport, for the remarkable show of solidarity. Football is a team game but their backing was overwhelming.”
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