Former Arsenal and England icon Ian Wright has admitted that he will be 'out' and 'gone' should the BBC decide to 'get rid' of Match of the Day co-host Gary Lineker.
Yesterday, a spokesperson for the British Broadcasting Corporation revealed that 62-year-old Gary had taken a 'step back' from his traditional hosting duties for this weekend's edition of MOTD, following backlash to a Tweet in response to the UK Government's new Illegal Migration Bill.
In his response to the Home Office move, Gary compared the new Tory asylum seeker policy with 1930s Germany.
Read more: Match of the Day to air without presenters or pundits after Gary Lineker fallout
The BBC then went on to announce that Lineker would take a break from presenting the football roundup until an 'agreed and clear position' on his social media usage was reached. In an episode of Wrighty's House - which aired yesterday shortly before the BBC announcement came - Ian called the ongoing row: "The perfect distraction," for the Tory Government.
The PA News Agency reports that the podcast’s host said: “I’ll tell you something. If they do – the BBC get rid of Gary Lineker – I’m out, I’m gone. I’m not staying there. On his own platform he should be able to say what he wants to say.”
Explaining the row, Wright added: “He wrote a tweet criticising the Government about everything that’s happening, the human rights issues and everything here and it’s the perfect distraction for this Government, man. Gary’s tweet was the headline news, bro.
He then continued: “They need Gary Lineker to distract everybody because for me it is a human issue, it’s not political. They’ve got no empathy. The most vulnerable ones are always the ones that suffer, they’re the ones that suffer and it starts with words.
“Gary Lineker, he retweeted from a German professor about – because the Hitler thing is what they all jumped on and everything like that. He retweeted saying that it all starts with language, it starts with words, they don’t just start throwing people into concentration camps, it starts with words and language.”
Shortly after the announcement of Lineker's step back, Ian stuck true to his word and said that he would not be presenting match of the day, in a stand of 'solidarity'. NUFC Legend and MOTD analyst Alan Shearer shortly after followed suit - with a number of other names such as Jermaine Jenas, Alex Scott and Micah Richards supporting Gary Lineker and co.
It was subsequently announced that this evening's Match of the Day will go ahead without a presenter or punditry.
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