[Football] Sir Gary Lineker - 25 years at the MotD helm

[hart's shirt]

Nice to see someone in the public eye with some morals and the nuts to stand up for what he believes in.

I have a lot of time for Lineker, he's clearly not anti semetic and made a mistake that he has not tried to weasle out of.

I hope he will continue his work in football and highlighting the injustices of our time.

I'm sad to see an excellent presenter leave MOTD for predominantly non-footballing reasons just as much as I was to see Hoddle forced out of the England job for his personal beliefs at the time however offensive, ill-judged and theologically unsound they were, but just as then, there was a degree of inevitability about it.

In a time of instant communication, taking 2 days to apologize for sharing the social media post having previously taken it down was far too long. The apology should really have come with the deletion IMHO. Leaving it until later might either suggest that he hadn't really considered how offensive it might be or that he might get away with it. When one factors in his previous encounters with BBC management, he's either been incredibly naive or badly advised.

You can rest assured that there's little doubt that he'll continue to voice his opinion on issues he feels strongly about without being hindered by the stipulations and expectations that come with the unique nature by which the BBC is funded. As someone who seems drawn like a moth to a flame to social media, Lineker's found out the hard way that however social he may want it to be, it's still media and subject to the corresponding scrutiny that goes with it.