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England.  Bow down to the mighty?  BBC in crisis after Lineker suspension.

England. Bow down to the mighty? BBC in crisis after Lineker suspension.

Soccer: Premier League, England, Leicester City v Chelsea FC, Matchday 27 at the King Power Stadium: Gary Lineker waves as he arrives on the pitch. The former star striker will no longer be seen as a football presenter on the BBC following a row over former footballer Lineker’s tweets on British immigration policy. Photo: Mike Egerton/PA Wire/dpa

Keystone

“Match of the Day” is the name given to Great Britain’s most important football event. No one would have thought that within hours it would turn into a political issue about refugee policy and press freedom. But that’s what happened.

On Saturday, the show, usually hosted by former England star striker Gary Lineker, had to be done without a moderator and pundits as the 62-year-old criticized the government on Twitter. The public service BBC suspended him because his independence was at risk. Result: Pundits, TV crews and footballers showed solidarity and put the broadcaster in crisis.

But first things first: it all started with Lineker’s tweet on Tuesday, in which he juxtaposed the Conservative government’s words about refugees with Nazi rhetoric from the 1930s.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his home minister, Suella Braverman, earlier presented a bill that would deny those who entered Germany illegally the right to seek asylum. Criticism of this came not only from the opposition, but also from the UN refugee agency UNHCR, which accused Great Britain of breaching its international obligations.

Right-wing Braverman had previously spoken of an “invasion” of boat people. Great Britain takes only a small number of refugees compared to Germany.

Lineker accused him of trivializing the Holocaust. Several Conservative MPs called for consequences for the former footballer. But Linegar didn’t want to apologise. The BBC suspended its highest-paid presenter on Friday.

What the company didn’t expect: His colleagues on “Match of the Day” announced that former soccer stars Ian Wright and Alan Shearer would not be on the show. Many BBC colleagues joined. The PFA, the Footballers’ Association, backed the Premier League players who refused to give interviews for the programme. Other sports programs on radio and television also had to be cancelled.

Lineker is a football icon like Jurgen Klinsmann or Rudi Voller in Germany. A sentence that is still often quoted today comes from the 62-year-old former striker: «Football is a simple game. 22 men chase the ball for 90 minutes and eventually the Germans win. He has been the face of “Day Game” for over 20 years.

Lineker has 8.8 million followers on Twitter and has a history of sharing political views that have clashed with the Conservative government in London. After all, the moderator, who worked independently for the BBC, was outspoken against Brexit, making powerful enemies with the Tories.

The BBC has been under pressure from Brexit supporters and right-wing populists in the conservative Tory party for years. According to their account, the public broadcaster is trapped by left-leaning journalists representing the urban elite. Actions such as the Lineker case appear to be expected obedience on the part of the BBC to avoid such criticism.

It is the latest in a long line of top journalists turning their backs on the BBC. In addition, the government repeatedly threatened to cancel broadcasting contributions. Freezing contributions has already led to painful savings.

Media experts see the Tories’ continued criticism of the BBC as an attempt to break down the independence of public service broadcasting. Former BBC journalist Emily Maitlis expressed her frustration in a lecture last year: “We see politicians taking a direction that is deeply and clearly damaging to our fundamental democratic government,” Maitlis said. He asked that if a party continued to lie, he should be called out by name.

In the ongoing controversy over Lineker’s suspension, former BBC director-general Greg Dyke also delivered a scathing report for the organisation. “The real problem today is that the BBC has undermined its own credibility by doing this because from the outside it looks like he’s bowing to government pressure,” Dyke told BBC 4 radio.

According to some critics, “Auntie”, as the BBC is sometimes affectionately called, is already in the grip of government sympathizers. For example, there was no retaliation when it was revealed that Richard Sharpe, the current BBC chairman, had made a personal loan to Prime Minister Boris Johnson when he was hired – not to mention a conflict of interest.

SDA