Jermaine Jenas has made it clear that he would have refused to appear on Match of the Day tomorrow in solidarity with the axed Gary Lineker.
Lineker has been taken off the flagship football highlights programme after describing the government's new Migration Bill as "beyond awful" and saying the language in it is “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s."
The publicly-funded broadcaster said they had “decided that he will step back” after holding “extensive discussions” with him. Responding to his axing, Lineker told Channel 5: "They've told me I have to step back."
Jenas, who regularly appears as a pundit on Match of the Day and presents BBC primetime show the One Show, had been installed as favourite to take Lineker's role. But after broadcasting on Friday, he quickly moved to pour cold water on those rumours.
Jenas tweeted: "Been on air with the one show. I wasn’t down to be doing match of the day tomorrow, but if I was I would of said no and stood with my fellow pundits and @GaryLineker."
Jenas has followed in the footsteps of many of his colleagues, who have all stood in solidarity with Lineker. Ian Wright, Alan Shearer, Alex Scott and Micah Richards have all taken to social media to say they will not appear on Match of the Day on Saturday.
Wright is a regular on the BBC's flagship highlights programme, but tweeted: "Everybody knows what Match of the Day means to me, but I’ve told the BBC I won’t be doing it tomorrow. Solidarity."
Later on Friday evening, his punditry colleague Shearer made the same decision. He tweeted: "I have informed the BBC that I won’t be appearing on MOTD tomorrow night."
Scott, who has appeared on Match of the Day as a pundit and presented Football Focus, tweeted a GIF of Bernie Sanders saying "Nah! Not me" in an apparent response to people suggesting she might fill Lineker's role on Saturday.
Richards tweeted: "I was not due to be working on MOTD tomorrow, but if I was, I would find myself taking the same decision that @IanWright0 & @alanshearer have."
On the decision to suspend Lineker, a BBC spokesperson said: "The BBC has been in extensive discussions with Gary and his team in recent days. We have said that we consider his recent social media activity to be a breach of our guidelines.
"The BBC has decided that he will step back from presenting Match of the Day until we’ve got an agreed and clear position on his use of social media.
The Mirror has launched a petition to have Gary Lineker reinstated at the BBC and as the host of Match of the Day. Sign it here.
"When it comes to leading our football and sports coverage, Gary is second to none. 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."
Later on Friday, the BBC confirmed they had changed the way Match of the Day would change the way the show was made, due to an inability to find any pundits or presenters.
A BBC spokesperson said: “Some of our pundits have said that they don’t wish to appear on the programme while we seek to resolve the situation with Gary. We understand their position and we have decided that the programme will focus on match action without studio presentation or punditry.”
