BBC apologizes and World Cup top scorer returns to broadcaster – 03/13/2023 – Sport

An apology from the BBC for the way it handled the ousting of former player and presenter Gary Lineker has put an end to one of the biggest crises in the history of the UK public broadcaster. Controversy that slipped into the government of the Conservative Party.

“After a few surreal days, I’m glad we were able to find a way through this. I want to thank everyone for their incredible support, especially my BBC Sport colleagues for their outstanding displays of solidarity. Football is a team sport, but support theirs was amazing,” Lineker wrote on Twitter.

Lineker caused a crisis at the station when he compared, in a post on Twitter, the immigration policy to be implemented by the British government to that of Nazi Germany.

He had been removed from the program by BBC management. In solidarity, other former players who work as commentators warned that they would not participate in the broadcast this Saturday (11). Mark Chapman, the best-known voice at 5 Live, the conglomerate’s news radio, failed to show up for work. Active athletes refused to give post-game interviews to the broadcaster.

Match of the Day showed the best moments of the round, but without opening vignette, narrations, interviews and analysis. Only the bids of the matches with ambient sound. This had never happened.

“Everyone recognizes that it has been a period for staff, contributors, presenters and, most importantly, our audience. We apologize for this. The confusion caused by a gray area in the social media rules for BBC staff, introduced in 2020, it’s recognized by us. I want to fix that, and our sports content will be back on the air,” said the broadcaster’s general manager, Tim Davie.

The agreement reached is that the BBC will hire an independent company to review its recommendations regarding the use of social networks. Meanwhile, Lineker undertakes to respect the regulations in force.

The controversy over his tweets and the suspension also opened up an internal struggle for influence at the BBC. Despite having independence rules, the broadcaster, a public TV reference in the world, is not immune to political disputes.

The current chairman of the state-owned conglomerate, chosen by the government and approved by Parliament, Richard Sharp, donated £600,000 (R$3.8 million today) to the Conservative Party. When he was a banker, he helped oil an £800,000 (£5m) personal loan to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

There is also an old battle in the halls of government over the license fee. The money that supports the BBC is paid by everyone who has a television at home. It’s BRL 998 per year, and not making the payment or falsely declaring that you don’t own a TV were considered crimes until the start of the pandemic.

Part of the Conservative Party wants to extinguish the fee and wants the broadcaster to seek money in the market, with the sale of advertisements, as conventional channels do.