Wright insists he’ll be ‘gone’ from MOTD if BBC fire Lineker over ‘perfect distraction’ – ‘I am out!’
Ian Wright has threatened to permanently quit Match of the Day if the BBC decide to fire Gary Lineker after he was ‘taken off air’ by the broadcaster.
He tweeted: ‘There is no huge influx. 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?’
This led to backlash from Conservatives, with some claiming that Lineker should be sacked for breaching the BBC’s impartiality guidelines.
Lineker has refused to apologise and the BBC have since ‘taken him off air’ ahead of Saturday evening’s episode of Match of the Day.
Many of Lineker’s colleagues have stood in unison with the presenter. On Friday evening, Wright, Alan Shearer, Micah Richards, Jermaine Jenas and Alex Scott all announced that they would not appear on Match of the Day this weekend.
They have been joined by the BBC’s commentators and it is even anticipated that Premier League players and managers will refuse to be interviewed by the broadcaster after this weekend’s games.
Match of the Day will go on without a presenter or pundits, but it was revealed on Saturday morning that Football Focus has been pulled by the BBC and that Jason Mohammed is not willing to host Final Score.
Wright has now given a more detailed response to the situation via his podcast. He has insisted that he is “not staying” at the BBC if they “do get rid of Lineker”.
“That is the distraction and let me tell you something, if the BBC do get rid of Gary Lineker I am out. I am gone, I am not staying there. On his own platform, he should be able to say what he wants to say,” he said on his Wrighty’s House podcast.
“Gary Lineker, he says stuff on everything and it’s almost like this one has missed everybody simply because he says so much but this is so right what he is saying. I have spoken to Gary, I am behind him.
“He wrote a tweet about everything that has been happening with the human rights issues and everything here and it’s the perfect distraction for this government. Gary’s tweet was the headline news, it’s like they need Gary Lineker to distract everybody. For me, it is a human issue it’s not political.
“They have got no empathy, the most vulnerable ones are always the ones that suffer. They are the ones that suffer and it starts with words. Gary Lineker I think retweeted from a German professor, because the Hitler thing is what they all jumped on and everything like that but he retweeted saying that it all starts with language.
“It starts with words, they didn’t just start throwing people into concentration camps. It starts with words and language and what they are doing again is the culture war they want us to all have, left-versus-right: ‘Oh you’re woke, you’re woke’.”
