Gary Lineker won’t present BBC soccer show after Twitter post

LONDON (AP) — Former England captain Gary Lineker is not going to current a soccer highlights present on the BBC till an settlement is reached on his social media use, the community stated on Friday.

Lineker criticized the British authorities’s new asylum coverage in a Twitter submit, evaluating lawmakers’ language about migrants to that utilized in Nazi Germany.

The BBC considers Lineker posting such views on social media as a breach of its tips. It has been in discussions with Lineker over his involvement within the “Match of the Day” program that’s broadcast on Saturday nights and exhibits highlights of English Premier League video games that day.

“The BBC has decided that he will step back from presenting ‘Match of the Day,’” the broadcaster stated, “till we’ve bought an agreed and clear place on his use of social media.

“We have never said that Gary should be an opinion-free zone, or that he can’t have a view on issues that matter to him, but we have said that he should keep well away from taking sides on party political issues or political controversies.”

Lineker has but to make an official remark.

Alan Shearer and Ian Wright, former England gamers who work as pundits on “Match of the Day,” stated on Twitter they’d not be showing on this system this weekend.

Wright stated he had taken the choice out of “solidarity” with Lineker.

Dan Walker, a former presenter on the BBC, stated he had been in touch with Lineker and requested him “whether he is stepping back or whether the BBC have told him to step back.”

Walker stated Lineker replied that the BBC “told me I have to step back.”

“So Gary Lineker wants to continue to present ‘Match Of The Day’ and is not apologizing for what he has said,” Walker stated on Channel 5, the place he works, “but he has said it’s a BBC decision to force him to not present the program at the moment.”

Conservative lawmakers in Britain are calling on the BBC to self-discipline Lineker, the community’s highest-paid star, for saying the federal government’s plan to detain and deport migrants arriving by boat is “an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s.”

The authorities has referred to as Lineker’s Nazi comparability inappropriate and unacceptable, and a few lawmakers stated he needs to be fired.

The 62-year-old Lineker is a family identify in Britain and one of many U.Ok.’s most influential media figures, with 8.7 million followers on Twitter. He was the main scorer on the 1986 World Cup and completed his worldwide profession with 48 objectives in 80 matches for England.