Thread: Mess of the Day ,BBC flagship Match of the day stars walk out

^ thanks for paying your TV licence David, we acknowledge your unwavering commitment to the cause

It's going to run without any analysis tomorrow which will be shite.

It couldnt be worse that it already is, with smarmy lineker and his overpaid cronies repeating the same "analytical" codswallop over and over again, week in week out.

Just show relevant highlights with a decent motsonian commentary, and ffs, get rid of alex scott and her teethgratingly awful cockney twang.

He is such a massive t^^t

Well, it's certainly got TD's English right wingers in a froth.

Funny how the chairman of the bbc contributing millions to the tories and many other examples is OK, but Lineker tweeting is getting them all riled up.

Apparently players are now considering not giving interview time to the BBC.

All over proposed legislation that will inevitably fail in the ECHR, just as something very similar did very recently.

The BBC has totally bungled this.

Have to say, I'm in full agreement with Lineker's tweet and hope he doesn't back down and apologise for it.

The BBC have made a mess of things and it could well escalate to all sports, not just football.

Well done Gary, for speaking up.

Originally Posted by cyrille

Well, it's certainly got TD's English right wingers in a froth.

Certainly in a bit of a tizz . . . love old Boris making the UK look even ridiculous as it already is and then pile on an ex-footballer for criticising immigration policy . . . find your right-wing TD loons here:

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

If he'd tweeted that Keir Starmer was a Nazi you'd have a different opinion I'm sure.

Lineker hasn't tweeted that anybody is a Nazi so yes, it would be.

For the record, I consider Lineker to be a complete tit.

But just because someone gets paid by the BBC doesn't mean he can't irritate numpt/stringler/tromsotwat and the like.

In fact it should probably get him a bonus.

Why there are no winners after the BBC’s two-footed tackle on Gary Lineker - Barney Ronay The Guardian

Keep politics out of sport. Ha, yeah. Good luck with that. Meanwhile, in what we must, if only out of a sense of convention, call the Real World, we have this: the strange and sinister developments of Friday evening in what will now come to be known as the Lineker affair.

The suspension of Gary Lineker from BBC presenting duties – not Newsnight or Question Time, but the bloodless warm bath of Match of the Day – over a tweet sent on Wednesday afternoon criticising government policy on migrants is, frankly, a jaw-dropping act of political intervention.

Of course both the BBC and the government will deny that this is an act of direct intervention. The only real response to that is: do you believe them?

And let us be clear: it really doesn’t matter what Lineker has been banging on about on his Twitter feed. It doesn’t matter if you like him, or agree with him, or feel annoyed by him. Perhaps you just want to watch the football. Perhaps you actively dislike and fear migrants. Perhaps this is in part because the government and friendly media keep stating (incorrectly) that the UK is being disproportionately assailed or invaded or colonised by them………………………………………….

Why there are no winners after the BBC’s two-footed tackle on Gary Lineker | Gary Lineker | The Guardian

rest of the article

The fact is everybody loses, everything is diminished, when it is in the gift of the government of the day to decide who gets to say what on issues of basic human kindness. What we have here is the de facto state censorship of a man who says things like “and now to Goodison” in between footage of people playing football, for the crime of having freelance opinions on social media.

The title of stupidest, nastiest national discourse is, of course, a hotly contested global title. What makes the actions of the BBC in suspending Lineker over his personal tweets that bit worse is that with the other hand it will preach to others about press freedom and editorial integrity. Meanwhile it will also cave, without resistance, will be bullied and lectured on probity by the cheapest of political classes, by a home secretary who resigned over a breach of the ministerial code just six months ago.

So Lineker, who makes dad jokes and talks about Leicester, will now be absent from our screens over the contents of his original tweet, in which he compared the language used by the Home Office in framing its policy on migrants to that of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

And you do have to admire the unstinting effort that has gone into constructing out of such thin material not just a white noise of distraction; but weaponising Lineker’s own words against him.

It should be no surprise. If Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages have taught us anything, beyond the fact Matt Hancock is a kind of rancid human margarine poured into a shiny blue suit, it is that the current political class is obsessed with managing the message.



Gary Lineker scores for England against Poland at the 1986 World Cup. Photograph: Bongarts/Getty ImagesLineker’s key mistake was to throw Nazi Germany in there. However fine and nuanced his understanding of the semiotics of National Socialist messaging in the years 1930-1940, it would be good generally if people could stop using Nazi Germany as a kind of bad things emoji. Better to explain and use detail. Save Nazi Germany. Keep it in your back pocket for those occasions when only Nazi Germany will do. In doing so he offered up an opportunity. And an opportunist will never miss one of those.

And so Lineker’s comments were gleefully gobbled up, gloatingly amplified, used as a dead cat with which to beat him around the head. At the end of which the only real certainty is that Lineker has been played like a piano, thrashed like a human piñata by a government which already has quite the record when it comes to sport and cheap public relations.

His suspension will, of course, be linked explicitly to the fact BBC presenters are supposed to avoid political statements. But the use of this power here feels arbitrary. Lineker is a freelance football pundit with a private Twitter account. He doesn’t do politics for the BBC. It is bizarre to suggest there is some public good issue, some threat to independence, that justifies threatening him into silence on his personal social media.

Originally Posted by taxexile

Lineker is entitled to his views and has the right to express them

End of...

Would have been better if the BBC just let it be. Now they are in a bit of a pickle, perhaps those with political bias that lead need to resign over this.

As a non English person may I add Gary Lineker was an exceptional soccer player and celebrity long before MOTD.

During the 50 years of hurt he was one of the few with fellow host Shearer who brought a a few goals to cheer the fans used to being sent home by Germany in endless penalty shoot outs.

There was also had a Theatre play penned by Arfur Smith

"An Evening with Gary Lineker'

named after him a World Cup football based comedy with Paul Merton, his then partner Caroline Quentin and Martin Clunes which is quite funny if you like football and jokes about Germans.

One version is here on utube last about 80m



even a Motty cameo if you wish to wallow in 1990s

An Evening with Gary Lineker is a 1991 stage play, adapted for television in 1994, by Arthur Smith and Chris England.The action takes place against the backdrop of the 1990 Football World Cup semi-final, between England and West Germany, which is taking place in Italy while Monica and Bill are on holiday in Ibiza. Bill desperately wants to watch the match; Monica wants to talk about their relationship.The play was nominated for an Olivier Award and is published by Josef Weinberger Plays.A 90-minute television drama, adapted by Smith and England from their playscript, was produced by Andy Harries for Granada Television and aired on 14 June 1994 on ITV just before the start of the 1994 World Cup and was repeated 4 years later during France 98. It starred Caroline Quentin as Monica and Clive Owen as Bill, with the supporting cast including Quentin's then real-life husband Paul Merton as Bill's wet, annoying best friend Ian, who has accompanied them on the holiday to Monica's consternation. Lizzy McInnerny plays Birgitta, a German whom Ian has met in Ibiza, and Martin Clunes plays Dan, a client of Bill's publishing company who is coincidentally in Ibiza too. Gary Lineker makes a cameo appearance and the voice of John Motson is provided by impressionist Alistair McGowan

The BBC now have an opportunity to rid themselves of those who flount guidelines and make political statements.

Lineker is not some unknown junior weather forecaster, but a lynchpin of BBC sport, and his comments, wherever he chooses to make them will be associated with the BBC.

If the BBC wish to retain a reputation for impartiality, and their taxpayer funding, then they need to get rid of the odious virtue signalling woke hypocrite. There are plenty of other broadcast channels in the UK that are defined by their political bias, and he should seek employment with one of them, or better still stand for parliament at the next election. Then he will be able to broadcast his simplistic and rather superficial politics 24 hours a day.

Originally Posted by taxexile

If the BBC wish to retain a reputation for impartiality, and their taxpayer funding, then they need to get rid of the odious virtue signalling woke hypocrite.

...along with BBC Chariman, Richard Sharp and Sir Robbie Gibb.

However, the fact is someone needs to highlight the disgraceful immigration policies of the UK and in much stronger terms than Gary Lineker.

Originally Posted by DrWilly

it would be good generally if people could stop using Nazi Germany as a kind of bad things emoji.

Oddly enough only the English still live in this dream world where calling someone a Nazi is thought of as a 'zinger', where in reality no-one give a fuck. As a German it offends me as much as being called anything else in an argument - not at all, though the source is invariably English.

I guess if I were a soap-dodger life would be difficult enough these days.

do tell me what is so disgraceful about about preventing illegal entry by mostly document free cash rich male chancers not in any immediate danger from anything or anybody and facilitated by both trafficking gangs and human rights lawyers.

There is a massive difference between researched immigration policies and just allowing anyone in the world to turn up on a beach and claim they are a refugee. Would you employ someone who turned up for a job they had no qualifications for? We want the best and we want those who are at most harm of being victimised ie. women and children. The rest can wait in line and apply in the proper and legal way OR can face total exclusion like the new law says. What the bloody hell is so racist or unfair about that? blinkered ivory tower voyeurism.

The disgrace is removal of refugee rights and the continual attempt to categorise them as migrants. They should not need to require a visa in order to enter the UK.

Furthermore, UK immigration are being deliberately slow in processing applications and have failed to addreess the problem by providing immigration centres in Northern Europe to process applications.

They should not need to require a visa in order to enter the UK.

So its an open door then. No restrictions.?????

The disgrace is removal of refugee rights and the continual attempt to categorise them as migrants

How would you distinguish between a genuine refugee fleeing persecution and an economic migrant that has travelled through 3 or 4 safe countries in order to enter the UK.