In 2023 Gary Lineker was briefly suspended by the BBC for refusing to withdraw a comment comparing Government asylum policy to the Nazis, and has confessed that he cried when his colleagues walked out in solidarity
Gary Lineker wept as football pals backed him when he was pulled off air in a row with the BBC.
The Match of the Day host, 63, was suspended after he refused to apologise for a tweet in which he compared language around the Governments’ small boats policy to that used in Nazi Germany.
Colleagues Alan Shearer and Ian Wright walked out in solidarity with him.
He told podcast Ruthie’s Table 4: “I just found it incredible. I shed a tear in the back of a black taxi when Ian Wright and Alan Shearer supported me, and everyone followed suit.”
He had warned them he may be taken off the show.
“Ian said: ‘If they do that there’s no way I’m doing the show.’ It’s one thing saying that but then actually to follow that through, and you learn then that they are real mates and you learn a little bit about what they think about you.
“That for me was one of the most amazing things I’ve been through in my life, the support side of it.”
His removal in March last year flung the BBC into chaos and later prompted BBC director-general Tim Davie to say he wanted him back on air.
The BBC introduced a new so-called ‘Lineker clause’ in September, which attempted to dissuade presenters who work on “flagship programmes” from voicing their political opinions. But Lineker clearly still feels emboldened enough to speak up for what he believes in.