Gary Lineker thought he was free to tweet about issues surrounding refugees and immigration before his BBC saga kicked off, according to his agent Jon Holmes.
Holmes has worked with Lineker since 1980, when he was a footballer for Leicester, and was the man fighting his corner as the broadcaster and the BBC sought a resolution. It was Lineker's tweet criticising the Government's new asylum policy and drawing parallels to Nazi Germany that saw him taken off air on Friday - 24 hours before Match of the Day.
It sparked a mass walkout with a host of Lineker's colleagues refusing to take part in the BBC's football coverage on Saturday and Sunday. The likes of Alan Shearer and Ian Wright chose to stick by Lineker, who thought he had an agreement with the BBC's director general that allowed him to air his views on refugee issues.
“Gary takes a passionate interest in refugees and immigration and, as he saw it, had a special agreement with Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, to tweet about these issues,” Holmes wrote in the New Statesman on Wednesday.
The agent, who was involved in talks regarding Lineker's potential return, maintained that taking his client off air was the worst thing to do. Holmes added: "Then they asked me how the matter could be resolved, I told them taking Gary off the air would not be helpful and we needed to clarify the guidelines."
By Monday Lineker had been reinstated, after Match of the Day had aired for just 20 minutes without any punditry analysis on Saturday night. Holmes admits he resisted saying "I told you say" amid fierce backlash and also added: “It’s best not to feed the beast. You starve it – that’s how you achieve a quick resolution to problems like these.”
Lineker is the BBC’s highest-paid presenter and is expected to abide by the broadcaster’s social media guidelines, which state he should not express any views regarding things like politics. Such guidelines have been widely criticised with Ofcom among those to admit they need revisiting.
Holmes claimed: “BBC guidelines on social media use for staff and freelancers are – let us say – a bit vague. If Gary said ‘vote communist’, or ‘vote Liberal’, or ‘vote Brexit ’, would it make any difference?”
Lineker said on Monday: "After a surreal few days, I’m delighted that we have navigated a way through this. I want to thank you all for the incredible support, particularly my colleagues at BBC Sport, for the remarkable show of solidarity. Football is a team game but their backing was overwhelming."
