All posts tagged: Lineker

‘The levels of attack are extraordinary’: Gary Lineker on punditry, podcasts – and why he won’t stop speaking his mind | Gary Lineker

‘The levels of attack are extraordinary’: Gary Lineker on punditry, podcasts – and why he won’t stop speaking his mind | Gary Lineker

Gary Lineker has asked me to meet him at his house in Barnes at 2.30pm. It’s a miserable wet day in London, so I give myself time and arrive just before 2pm. As I turn into the narrow lane that loops round to his address, who should I see trying to squeeze past my car in a black Mini? His eyes slide towards me, then quickly back to the road. Gary Lineker! Where the hell are you going? I glance in my rear-view mirror to see his indicator blinking before he accelerates into a speedy getaway. I stop and check my phone. Sure enough, he’s crying off. “Could you do tomorrow?” he’s messaged. But I just saw you, I protest. Thirty seconds pass. He replies that he’s turning back. A couple minutes more and he’s home again, “So all good.” I pass the Mini again as I climb the porch steps and press the bell. Lineker is in a black tracksuit and a little agitated. This is not the TV Lineker of Match of the …

Gary Lineker: Match Of The Day host removes social media post calling for Israel to be banned from football | Ents & Arts News

Gary Lineker: Match Of The Day host removes social media post calling for Israel to be banned from football | Ents & Arts News

Match Of The Day host Gary Lineker has removed a social media post that called for Israel to be banned from international football. The former England star, now one of the highest profile presenters on the BBC, retweeted a post by The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) on X, formerly Twitter. In the post, PACBI called for “international public and official pressure on international sporting bodies” – including football’s governing body FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) – to suspend Israel’s membership and ban it from international tournaments and games. The group, affiliated with the wider Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS), called for the boycott “until Israel ends its grave violations of international law, particularly its apartheid rule and the crime of genocide it is perpetuating in Gaza”. Middle East crisis – live updates: Famine ‘has started’ in Gaza, says top UN official Israel has denied committing genocide in Gaza, including in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) where a case has been brought against it …

Gary Lineker dared to stand against Tory MP Jonathan Gullis | Politics | News

Gary Lineker dared to stand against Tory MP Jonathan Gullis | Politics | News

Gary Lineker has been challenged by a Tory MP to settle their bitter feud once and for all – by standing against him at the next general election. The war of words between Jonathan Gullis and the Match of the Day presenter started when the BBC star tweeted his views on the Rwanda migrants scheme. Mr Gullis, who represents Stoke-on-Trent North, claimed the former England and Tottenham player had breached BBC impartiality guidelines by speaking out about the plan to deport illegal arrivals to the African country. The Conservative wrote a complaint to Tim Davie, the corporation’s director-general, but Lineker hit back by saying: “Jonathan hasn’t read the new guidelines … or, should I say, had someone read them to him?” In an interview tonight with journalist Sophy Ridge on Sky News, Mr Gullis said: “Gary’s constantly trying to get likes on Twitter, or X as it’s now called.” He said that “if the BBC’s name is going to keep getting dragged through the mud” with “all the many presenters … who have to live …

Tory MP Jonathan Gullis challenges ‘virtue-signalling’ Gary Lineker to stand against him at next election | Politics News

Tory MP Jonathan Gullis challenges ‘virtue-signalling’ Gary Lineker to stand against him at next election | Politics News

A Tory MP has thrown down the gauntlet to former footballer Gary Lineker, telling him to stand at the next election amid an ongoing feud with the BBC presenter. Jonathan Gullis criticised Lineker last month on social media for signing an open letter against the Rwanda bill, claiming it breached the BBC’s new impartiality rules. Howerver, the Match Of The Day star hit back on X, saying the MP had not read the new social media guidelines, suggesting he couldn’t read. Image: Mr Gullis (left) said he would ‘absolutely’ beat Lineker at the polls Asked about the row on Sky News, Mr Gullis said: “Gary’s constantly trying to get lots of likes on Twitter, or X as it’s now called… I think Gary needs to spend less time virtue-signalling and more time talking about football, which he’s actually very good at.” He said he would “absolutely” beat Lineker at an election in his constituency of Stoke-on-Trent North, adding: “Let the public decide.” Mr Gullis has been an MP for the constituency since 12 December 2019, …

‘Gary Lineker is running the BBC’ as bosses ‘cave in’ over star’s Wayne Rooney demand | UK | News

‘Gary Lineker is running the BBC’ as bosses ‘cave in’ over star’s Wayne Rooney demand | UK | News

A furious backlash has erupted over the BBC’s decision to delete a tweet on Gary Lineker’s say so with claims that he is “running the BBC.” Gary Lineker urged the BBC to delete a social media post about Wayne Rooney after the former Manchester United striker was sacked by Birmingham City. The tweet by BBC Sport showed Rooney in a Peaky Blinder outfit – a show set in the Midlands that poked fun at the fact he had just been sacked by the Championship club. The image was posted alongside the caption: “By order of the Peaky Blinders, Wayne Rooney has been sacked by Birmingham City.” Some football fans criticised the tweet saying it was unfair to mock Rooney who’d been let go after The Blues won just twice in the league under his guidance. And Lineker then waded into the issue with a forceful response to the tweet which simply read “Delete this” with the Beeb quickly succumbing to his demand. Now onlookers are furious saying that Lineker wields the ultimate power over the …

Gary Lineker joins Michael Eavis to celebrate social homes built near Glastonbury site | Housing

Just over the hill, a small army of technicians and logistics experts was beavering away getting ready for the world’s greatest rock music event, the jamboree of music, magic and mayhem that is Glastonbury festival. But on a new-build street half a mile or so away from the sprawling site, a rather more low-key but nonetheless heartwarming event was taking place involving the festival’s founder, Michael Eavis, and the television presenter and ex-footballer Gary Lineker. Lineker was wielding a spade in order to plant a snowberry tree – as Eavis beamed away – to mark the end of a project to build 52 rented social homes just outside the festival’s perimeter fence in the Somerset village of Pilton. Though he will always be best known for the festival, Eavis said that, actually, his Maggie’s Farm development, conceived to ensure local people aren’t driven away by soaring rural property prices, was his proudest achievement. “Pilton is really important to me,” said Eavis. “It’s where I was born, where I have lived man and boy, where I …

Gary Lineker tweet scandal shows how the BBC has struggled to adapt to the social media age

Gary Lineker tweet scandal shows how the BBC has struggled to adapt to the social media age

The BBC’s highest-paid presenter, Gary Lineker, will soon be back in action after being briefly suspended for what the broadcaster described as a breach of its impartiality guidelines. The former footballer’s tweet on March 7 described the wording of the new government policy on immigration as language “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s”. It triggered attacks by Conservative MPs, intense national debate and a crisis at the corporation. The BBC’s flagship TV football review programme, Match of the Day, was aired without presenters or contributors at the weekend amid calls for the resignation of its director general, Tim Davie. The BBC gave up on finding substitute presenters after other pundits stood down in solidarity. Lineker refused to retract his tweet. After weekend talks, BBC management reached a deal, obliging him to observe the corporation’s editorial guidelines while it conducts a social media usage review. Described by some as a “[humiliating climbdown],(https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/14/gary-lineker-bbc-rightwing-national-debate)” the deal aimed to help the crisis blow over quickly. But it did not. Conservative party deputy chairman, Lee Anderson, …