GARY Lineker will front the BBC’s FA Cup coverage next Saturday after the under fire host struck a deal with the BBC today.
The agreement will be announced tomorrow after tense talks, following a weekend of TV mayhem caused by the Nazi tweets row.
MPs and pals of Lineker will pore over the details to see who has backed down.
It risks a potentially explosive new row between the BBC and the Tory party if the star presenter has neither apologised or agreed to abide by impartiality rules in the future.
Director General Tim Davie has been under massive pressure to find a solution after schedules were hammered both yesterday and today.
A TV source said: “Gary will be back to host the BBC’s FA Cup coverage. A deal has been struck.
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“If the BBC have agreed to allow him to keep tweeting his anti-Tory views, it will be seen as a major victory for Gary, but the details of the deal are unclear at this stage.”
Next weekend’s FA Cup quarter final coverage includes Manchester City against Burnley on Saturday and Man U vs Fulham on Sunday.
The row was triggered when the veteran broadcaster responded to a video on Twitter of Home Secretary Suella Braverman as she presented the Government’s small boats plan.
The legislation will see migrants swiftly detained and removed to either their country of origin or a safe third state within 28 days.
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Sharing the clip, Mr Lineker said: “Good heavens, this is beyond awful.”
Responding to another user who described him as “out of order”, he added: “We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries.
“This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s, and I’m out of order?”
The BBC said the pundit’s comments on Twitter were a “breach of our guidelines”.
Ms Braverman later said his comments were “offensive”.
She added: “To kind of throw out those kind of flippant analogies diminishes the unspeakable tragedy that millions of people went through…
“And I don’t think anything that is happening in the UK today can come close to what happened in the Holocaust.”
Match Of The Day ran for just 20 minutes last night – without commentary or even the iconic theme tune – as the crisis-hit BBC struggled to get the flagship highlights show on-air.
Football Focus, Final Score, the Fighting Talk podcast and 5Live’s 606 football phone in were all canned yesterday as the staff uprising sent schedules into meltdown.
And tonight’s Match Of The Day 2 will run for just 14 minutes, again with no commentary or presenters.
Mr Davie told the BBC on Saturday he would “absolutely not” quit amid a fallout that has bought the corporation to its knees.
He described the unfolding disaster as a “difficult day” and apologised for the disruption to BBC sports programming.
Asked if he was sorry about the way he handled the furore, Mr Davie told the BBC on Saturday: “We made decisions and I made decisions based on a real passion about what the BBC is and it’s difficult.”
He insisted the row is about impartiality.
Gary’s tweets were said to break the BBC’s strict impartiality rules which state that staff must “avoid taking sides on political controversies” and “take care when addressing public policy matters”.
RISHI’S RESPONSE
It comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pleaded for some “perspective” following the Lineker row.
Mr Sunak warned the BBC is “not about one person” as Corporation bosses scrambled to find a solution to the impartiality row with their highest paid star.
Speaking to reporters on his way to California, the PM said on Sunday the crisis was for not for the Government to step into but for “them to sort out, between Gary Lineker, the BBC and their presenters.”
He added: “I think the issue between Gary Lineker and the BBC is one they should resolve.
“I hope they can resolve it in a timely fashion.”
Meanwhile The Sun’s Trevor Kavanagh said the row has dealt a killer blow to Lineker’s own beloved BBC.
The columnist blasted the corporation as being “colonised by the Guardian-reading liberal elite” for whom “the trigger word ‘Tory’ sends them groping for the garlic and crucifix”.
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And he suggested “Lineker must know he is out of order” following the inflammatory tweets.
Tory Deputy Chairman Lee Anderson later fumed: “MOTD is old ex footballers ripping off the public by chatting nonsense instead of showing more football.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
