Jermaine Jenas Clarifies his Postion on Taking Over as Match of the Day Host from Gary Lineker

Gary Lineker Jermaine Jenas

 

Jermaine Jenas has stated unequivocally that he would not have been on Match of the Day Saturday in solidarity with the fired Gary Lineker.

Lineker was fired from the flagship football highlights show after he called the government’s new Migration Bill “beyond horrible” and said the language is “very close to that employed by Germany in the 1930s.”

The publicly-funded broadcaster said they had “decided that he will step back” after holding “extensive discussions” with him. Responding to his axing, Lineker told Channel 5: “They’ve told me I have to step back.”

Jenas, who routinely appears as a pundit on Match of the Day and hosts the BBC primetime show the One Show, had been tipped to replace Lineker. Nevertheless, following his show on Friday, he promptly moved to put an end to those rumors.

Jenas tweeted: “Been on air with the one show. I wasn’t down to be doing match of the day tomorrow, but if I was I would of said no and stood with my fellow pundits and @GaryLineker.”

Jenas has followed in the footsteps of many of his colleagues, who have all shown their support for Lineker. Ian Wright, Alan Shearer, Alex Scott, and Micah Richards all took to social media to announce that they will not be appearing on Match of the Day on Saturday.

Wright is a regular on the BBC’s flagship highlights programme, but tweeted: “Everybody knows what Match of the Day means to me, but I’ve told the BBC I won’t be doing it tomorrow. Solidarity.”

 

Gary Lineker

Later on Friday evening, his punditry colleague Shearer made the same decision. He tweeted: “I have informed the BBC that I won’t be appearing on MOTD tomorrow night.”

Scott, who has served as a pundit on Match of the Day and hosted Football Focus, posted a GIF of Bernie Sanders stating “No! Not me “in apparent response to speculation that she may assume Lineker’s job on Saturday.

Richards tweeted: “I was not due to be working on MOTD tomorrow, but if I was, I would find myself taking the same decision that @IanWright0 & @alanshearer have.”

On the decision to suspend Lineker, a BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC has been in extensive discussions with Gary and his team in recent days. We have said that we consider his recent social media activity to be a breach of our guidelines.

“The BBC has decided that he will step back from presenting Match of the Day until we’ve got an agreed and clear position on his use of social media.

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