Inside BBC’s Lineker meltdown with ‘staff sessions’ to take place

Gary Lineker 'didn't choose to step back' says Dan Walker

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“Chaos”. “Wild”. “The worst 24 hours”. All of these terms were used to describe the situation the BBC had created for itself after choosing to suspend Gary Lineker in the latest impartiality row to rock the British public service broadcaster. As BBC chiefs rushed to fix the crisis that had unfolded within its organisation, Lineker attended Leicester City’s 3-1 defeat to Chelsea on Saturday with a calm demeanour, perhaps knowing that everything would eventually return to normal.

The broadcaster’s best-paid presenter was told he would not front Match of the Day until an “agreed and clear position” is reached on how he uses social media. Lineker had compared the language used pertaining to the government’s immigration policy to that of Nazi Germany in tweets earlier this week. On Monday morning, the BBC caved with a humbling U-turn after a huge backlash and Lineker was reinstated.

In the 48 hours that followed the BBC’s decision to suspend Lineker over his tweet, the broadcasting giant had lost support from all of its usual Match of the Day commentators and pundits, freelance radio commentators and production staff to a boycott. The only ones that remained were contractually obliged to do so.

It began with Ian Wright and then Alan Shearer — Lineker’s MOTD co-hosts — pulling out of the programme on Friday evening. Once backup hosts Jermaine Jenas and Alex Scott opted against replacing them, the BBC were forced into crisis mode.

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Then the Saturday lunchtime football show, Football Focus, was cancelled and Final Score, the BBC’s live results service, soon followed. BBC Radio 5 Live, which airs the corporation’s Premier League commentaries, was the next domino to fall. BBC TV’s 10 o’clock news bulletin did not include a full sports report, only mentioning England’s Six Nations defeat to France.

But the real headline was that MOTD, instead of its usual 90-minute slot, was aired with just a 20-minute highlights package with no commentary. There was no presenter, commentary or analysis broadcast to viewers, providing a subtle reminder of the abandonment the BBC had felt from its decision.

MOTD2 on Sunday was impacted in the same way, with its usual host Mark Chapman backing out in support of Lineker.

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Inside the BBC, staffers were struggling to cope. According to The Athletic, one senior BBC journalist described the mood on Saturday as ‘wild’, while at their northern base of Salford, it was ‘chaos’.

Speculation of famous BBC names resigning from their roles floated around WhatsApp conversations, and it soon became apparent that non-sport presenters had joined in the backlash against Lineker’s suspension.

The report added that staffers had made their complaints known over a lack of information from leadership as BBC bosses found themselves at the centre of a full-blown crisis. The situation on BBC local radio was so uncertain that one journalist reportedly said guidance had been circulated for the situation if reporters were snubbed for interviews.

Eventually, all BBC staff were issued with a memo in the afternoon with the promise of “staff sessions” — either in person on Zoom — on Monday. That came before the 10am apology from director general Tim Davie, who issued a grovelling statement to Lineker.

Davie, who was ironically doorstepped by a BBC journalist in Washington D.C., admitted it had been a “difficult day”, but that undersold the true feeling of disarray felt by those truly affected by their decision.

Andrew Clement, a football editor at BBC television, wrote on Twitter that Friday and Saturday were “about the worst 24 hours I have experienced in over 30 years in BBC Sport”. BBC chairman Richard Sharp is now facing growing calls to resign over the row that has erupted from their decision to suspend Lineker.

It later emerged that the shorter version the BBC produced had reported a 500,000 increase in viewership on the Saturday programme. But in reality, it might have just been a case of intrigue rather than a more popular form of showing the programme – people wanted to see how dire the result would be. And aside from some a few choice tweets from Conservative MPs, the overall reaction was fiercely negative.

There appears to be some movement in terms of the BBC backing down over Lineker, with talks progressing at a pace which could see the 61-year-old return for the FA Cup.

But the damage had been done to the BBC’s reputation. Their action to make an example of arguably their most recognisable presenter over his own opinion threatened to bring down an entire operation that is overseen by hundreds of people. And in the future, a repeat of this mess could prove to be fatal to its credibility and livelihood.

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