Soccer

BBC Sport disrupted further as Football Focus and Final Score ‘pulled from schedule’

List of BBC presenters and pundits showing their support for Gary Lineker continues to grow

Gary Lineker arrives at the King Power Stadium to watch the Premier League match between Leicester City and Chelsea on Saturday. Photograph: Getty Images
Gary Lineker arrives at the King Power Stadium to watch the Premier League match between Leicester City and Chelsea on Saturday. Photograph: Getty Images
Sat Mar 11 2023 - 14:26

The BBC appears to have pulled Football Focus and Final Score from its schedule at the last moment, throwing the corporation’s sporting timetable into further disarray.

Football Focus was due to air at midday but Bargain Hunt played in its slot while The Repair Shop is due to run instead of Final Score at 4.30pm.

It has also been reported that BBC Radio 5 Live will be affected as host Mark Chapman will apparently not host Live Sport and Fighting Talk.

It comes as a host of sports presenters and pundits have pulled out of BBC shows after Gary Lineker was told to step back from hosting Match Of The Day in a row over impartiality.

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Lineker did not answer questions from reporters when he left his home in southwest London on Saturday morning. His son Harry later told reporters that he was on his way to watch Leicester’s match against Chelsea.

As he left to walk the dog, he said: “He has gone to Leicester to watch the game. He will be back this evening.”

Former Arsenal star and England player Alex Scott wrote on Twitter: “I made a decision last night that even though I love my show and we have had an incredible week winning an SJA for football focus that it doesn’t feel right for me to go ahead with the show today.

“Hopefully I will be back in the chair next week.”

Kelly Somers also confirmed she will not be presenting any BBC show on Saturday, after former England footballers Alan Shearer and Ian Wright announced on Friday night they would be boycotting MOTD in solidarity with Lineker.

Pundit Glenn Murray pulled out of appearing on Football Focus and Final Score on Saturday.

The former Brighton striker tweeted: “Was meant to be up in Media City today but reflecting last night I felt it was the right thing to do to step away from Focus & Score today. Hoping normal service resumes next week.”

Welsh presenter Jason Mohammad also confirmed he would not be hosting Final Score, tweeting: “As you know, Final Score is a TV show very close to my heart.

“However – I have this morning informed the BBC that I will not be presenting the show this afternoon on BBC One.”

On Friday evening, several Match Of The Day commentators shared a joint statement online, announcing they would be stepping down from Saturday’s broadcast.

The commentators, including Steve Wilson, Conor McNamara, Robyn Rowen and Steven Wyeth, said they did “not feel it would be appropriate to take part in the programme” given the current circumstances.

The BBC show is due to go ahead on Saturday evening without a presenter, pundits and several regular commentators.

In a previous statement, the BBC said the programme would “focus on match action without studio presentation or punditry”, saying it understood the position of its presenters.

It comes after Lineker, 62, was taken off air for a tweet which compared the language used to launch a new UK government asylum seeker policy with 1930s Germany.

The broadcaster said it had “decided” Lineker would take a break from presenting the highlights programme until an “agreed and clear position” on his use of social media had been reached.

Former BBC director general Greg Dyke said the corporation had made a “mistake” and “undermined its own credibility” by taking Lineker off air.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the precedent at the corporation is that “news and current affairs employees are expected to be impartial and not the rest”.

“If you start applying the rules of news and current affairs to everybody who works for the BBC, where does it end?”, he said.

He added: “There is a long-established precedent in the BBC that is, that if you’re an entertainment presenter or you’re a football presenter, then you are not bound by those same (impartiality) rules.

“The real problem of today is that the BBC has undermined its own credibility by doing this because it looks like – the perception out there – is that the BBC has bowed to government pressure.

“And once the BBC does that, then you’re in real problems.

“The perception out there is going to be that Gary Lineker, a much-loved television presenter, was taken off air after government pressure on a particular issue.”

A spokesman for the English Professional Footballers’ Association said in a statement on Twitter that they had “been informed that players involved in today’s games will not be asked to participate in interviews with Match Of The Day”.

It continued: “The PFA have been speaking to members who wanted to take a collective position and to be able to show their support for those who have chosen not to be part of tonight’s programme.

“During those conversations we made clear that, as their union, we would support all members who might face consequences for choosing not to complete their broadcast commitments.

“This is a common sense decision that ensures players won’t now be put in that position.”