Gary Lineker has claimed environmental protesters throwing jigsaw puzzles and a bit of confetti at Wimbledon are “not going to hurt anyone”. Three protestors were arrested at the All England Club on Wednesday.
But chairing an environmental panel at Wimbledon on Thursday, the BBC Match of the Day presenter said: “I completely understand where they’re coming from. Disruptive protest is the only one that gets any publicity.
“I get it. I also understand why people get so upset with it, particularly in sport. It is a difficult one. I think what is more important is probably our existence in the future rather than slight disruption of sporting events or other things.
“You don’t want things to be disrupted but at the same time they will really be disrupted with climate change. From what I’ve seen, splashing a bit of paint on a piece of glass where there is a painting behind, throwing jigsaw puzzles and a bit of confetti is not going to hurt anyone.”
The third day of Wimbledon was crashed twice by the environmental activism group. A first-round tie between Grigor Dimitrov and Sho Shimabukuro was halted by two protestors. Meanwhile, a third member of the group targeted Katie Boulter’s match against Daria Saville.
On Court 18, a man and a woman cleared the barriers and threw confetti and jigsaw pieces onto the grass. The man then sat down on the court before he was removed by security.
A couple of hours later when Boulter took to the same court to play Australian Saville, another man ran onto the grass and littered the playing surface with more confetti and jigsaw pieces.
The British No 1 said of the incident: “There were a lot of emotions because I didn’t really know what to do in that situation – it’s not something I’ve been through before. Naturally, my first instinct would have been to try and help get everything off the court. But at the same time, I have to remind myself to focus, to keep in the moment and keep trying to keep my eye on the ball and not drop it.
“It’s a really key moment for us – I had to win the next point or else there’s a lot of air between us. I tried to keep myself very level-headed and stay as focused as I could. I’m not really sure if [the timing] helped or not – obviously, I won a lot of points after that. It was a really tough moment for both of us and a bit of a shock to the system.”
Just Stop Oil have caused disruptions to several big sporting events this year including The Ashes, the World Snooker Championship and the Rugby Union Premiership final as they continue to call for the government to halt all new oil, gas and coal projects.
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