A growing number of English Premier League players and BBC presenters rallied to Lineker's support and refused to appear on the airwaves on Saturday
As BBC continues to deal with a deepening row after football presenter Gary Lineker was taken off air due to his criticism of government migration policy on social media, other presenters refused to work on Saturday in a show of solidarity with Lineker.
According to a report by Reuters, the BBC was forced to axe much of its sports coverage on Saturday. The BBC said it was "sorry for these changes which we recognize will be disappointing for BBC sport fans. We are working hard to resolve the situation and hope to do so soon.”
The former England captain was suspended from “Match of the Day,” a popular soccer highlights show, over a Twitter post that compared lawmakers' language about migrants to that used in Nazi Germany.
"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 broadcaster said.
"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,” it added.
Following this, a growing number of English Premier League players and BBC presenters rallied to Lineker's support and refused to appear on the airwaves on Saturday.
Instead of blanket coverage on Saturday of the most popular league in the world, the BBC had no preview shows on radio or TV and no early evening summary of the final scores of Premier League games. Lunchtime TV program “Football Focus” was replaced with a rerun episode of antiques show “Bargain Hunt,” while early evening “Final Score” was swapped for “The Repair Shop.”
The broadacster was also forced to strongly deny a report in 'The Guardian' that said that BBC decided not to broadcast an episode narrated by world-famous conservationist Sir David Attenborough for a new wildlife series over fears of a right-wing backlash, amid an ongoing controversy over affecting its sports programming involving football legend Gary Lineker.
While the newspaper claims that senior sources at the BBC have said that the decision not to show the sixth episode was made to fend off potential criticism from the political right, the BBC claims it was never intended for broadcast in the first place.
(With inputs from PTI)