BBC insiders have reacted with horror to comments made by Gary Lineker in an interview with Amol Rajan that dropped today. The former footballer and outgoing Match of the Day host’s statements about a Gaza documentary pulled from BBC iPlayer triggered the backlash.
The 13-year-old narrator of Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone has been revealed to be the son of the deputy agriculture minister in the Hamas government in Gaza. Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK. Following an investigation, the BBC said that the independent production company behind the film knew about the connection, but the corporation was not told, nor did it find out for itself before airing the documentary.
Lineker told Rajan that the BBC should “let people make their own minds up [about the film]. We’re adults. We’re allowed to see things like that. It’s incredibly moving.” Generally, I’d agree with that line of argument. However, it’s not so straightforward when the narrator is the son of a senior official in a proscribed terrorist organisation, and this was initially not declared to the audience.
Lineker: BBC “Capitulated to Lobbying”
Lineker also said that the BBC “capitulated to lobbying” in removing the piece. He refers to “lobbying” a couple of times during this part of the discussion. The phrase is a dog whistle for “Jewish/Israel Lobby” and all the antisemitic tropes that come with such a phrase.
I’m sure Lineker would unequivocally deny that this was his intention. However, quite understandably, that is how it is being perceived. One senior insider told me:
Lineker doesn’t change and doesn’t learn. We all know what he means by capitulating “to lobbying”. He’s a breed which won’t say it outright, but his track record of disgusting comments about Israel speaks for itself. He should be shunned.
Another insider:
It’s telling that Lineker should support such a problematic documentary and has expressed little, if any, sympathy for the victims of 7/10. This interview, once more, demonstrates how little the corporation cares for the wellbeing of its Jewish staff because it doesn’t appear that he was challenged.
(Lineker does condemn the horrors of October 7, 2023, in the conversation. He goes on to try and put them in the context of the wider Israel/Palestinian conflict. Rajan did not push back at the references to “lobbying”.)
Suspension Shouldn’t Have Happened
Throughout the conversation, the former England superstar striker maintains he was right regarding the social media posts that led to his suspension. This subsequently caused the collapse of a weekend of sports programming across the BBC. Lineker claimed that “the goalposts were massively moved because it was never an issue until, suddenly, this point”. He also suggested that the BBC wanted to move him on from being the main host of Match of the Day.
It’s all rather a shame. Lineker was a wonderful footballer and accomplished TV host. He is an icon at the club I support, Tottenham Hotspur, as well as Leicester City, Barcelona and others.
Ultimately, though, Gary Lineker just can’t help himself. Whatever accommodations the BBC make for him, and they were very accommodating with the updated social media guidelines, he tries to push things further.
I reached out to both the BBC and Lineker’s company, Goalhanger podcasts, regarding the “lobbying” comments. I did not receive a response in time for publication.
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