Gary Lineker has said he regrets that a tweet he posted led to a fallout with the BBC, when it should have been a row between the broadcaster and the Daily Mail.
The Match of the Day presenter was taken off air by the BBC in March 2023 after writing on X that the language used by the government to launch a policy on small boat crossings was “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s”.
Speaking at the Hay festival in Powys, the former England footballer suggested the real problem had been a critical front page headline from the Daily Mail, which was a “distortion” of his original comment.
“The one thing I do regret is that it was a fallout between me and the BBC and it should have been a fallout between the BBC and the Daily Mail,” he said.
“I think it is a great shame what happened, because it pretty much pitched me against the BBC, and I love the BBC. I don’t think we shout our corner enough, we get a little too defensive, particularly with worrying about what’s in the Daily Mail. They’ve got a raison d’etre and they wanted a story on the BBC.
“I think the BBC needs to not worry as much about the Daily Mail and worry about what the people who love the BBC care about.”
Lineker recalled that after posting the tweet he had gone to bed, switched his phone off, and woken up to hundreds of WhatsApp messages, initially fearing for his family. When he found out what had happened, he thought: “Phew, that’s all it is.”
Leaving his home later, he said he was chased by photographers “like something out of Benny Hill”.
After learning he would be taken off Match of the Day that weekend, he said he shed a tear when he saw that co-hosts Ian Wright and Alan Shearer decided to boycott the football highlights programme in solidarity. “That’s friendship, that’s support,” he said.
But he said that “one of the great strengths of the BBC is that we’ll self-analyse and be self-critical”.
The BBC has since implemented new social media rules banning star presenters from attacking political parties.
While Lineker said he could understand why many athletes didn’t wish to stick their heads above the parapet on political issues, not least because “social media can be awful at times”, he added: “I don’t do it to try to influence at all, I do it so I can look myself in the mirror. I think it’s important.”
Asked by the interviewer, David Olusoga, a fellow BBC presenter, about politicians’ tendency to dismiss athletes’ political views on grounds they should “stick to football”, Lineker said: “It’s only a line of attack if they don’t agree with you. They’re perfectly happy with free speech … as long as they agree.”
He added: “I detest division, the culture wars. Whatever side of politics you’re on, don’t drive people against each other. I just think we need a bit of kindness back, a bit of empathy, rather than attacking all the time.”
He said he was proud of the current generation of footballers and the way they have used their platform for good, including around racism and child poverty.
Lineker, who was presented with a Hay festival medal in recognition of his services to broadcast journalism, said there was much to admire in football, which he said was a “beautiful example” of how people from all backgrounds could become “harmonious”.
“We should sell that better as a sport rather than focusing on what some people in the crowd say,” he said.
