Gary Lineker explains ‘really f***ing weird’ experience in M&S after BBC row

Gary Lineker has opened up on how he found out that his Match of the Day colleagues would be boycotting the show earlier this year after he was suspended due to his social media activity, as well as the aftermath of the saga. The ex-Leicester star came under fire for criticising the government on Twitter, prompting the BBC to intervene.

In March, Lineker took aim at a Illegal Migration Bill that was unveiled by home secretary Suella Braverman and compared the language used when explaining the proposal of being similar to that used in the 1930s in Germany.

The pundit received backlash for his tweet from some, with the BBC taking action by suspending Lineker after he refused to apologise for his statement. Lineker was then told that he would not be hosting Match of the Day, prompting an industry-wide boycott of the show where pundits refused to fill the vacancy.

Speaking about the saga and finding out about how well supported he was by his colleagues, Lineker told The Guardian: “It started with Ian Wright pulling out, then 20 minutes later Alan Shearer did the same – it might have been slightly harder for him – and it was ‘wow, wow’. We have a WhatsApp group and I’d said: ‘I’ve got a feeling they might take me off Match of the Day because I’m not shifting.’ I’d been asked to make a statement but insisted I didn’t think I had anything to apologise for. I still think that.

“Wrighty said: ‘If they do, there’s no way I’m doing the show.’ I know he has strong convictions but when he actually tweeted it, I was like: pfff … Then Alan did it. I cried. I genuinely cried. I was in the back of a taxi in tears, moved. I was very emotional. I told them I could never thank them enough.

“It was everyone: the production staff were amazing. The crew, the guys operating the cameras, the commentators. They didn’t have to do it. Extraordinary. Even the public. I walked into M&S and got a round of applause, which was really fucking weird. It was so embarrassing. It was like: ‘I haven’t really done anything.’”