Tonight’s Match of the Day is set to look a lot different from normal following the news that Gary Lineker will not be presenting the show.
The former England striker will take a ‘step back’ from the sports show after he likened language regarding government asylum policy to 1930s Germany.
BBC’s decision to boot the former England striker off the show has shocked many fans across the footballing world. Following the news, co-hosts Ian Wright and Alan Shearer staged a walkout in solidarity, which started a mass exodus of BBC staff from the programme in protest.
Despite the show being in a major crisis, MOTD will go ahead as planned with several changes set to be introduced.
Sportsmail breaks down everything you need to know on how Match of the Day will look like on Saturday night.
MOTD is set to go ahead as planned despite the news that Lineker will not be presenting
Lineker will take a ‘stack back’ from MOTD after he likened an asylum policy to Nazi Germany
How Match of the Day will look
The BBC confirmed that Match of the Day will go ahead as planned with no presenters or pundits.
Former Arsenal striker and pundit Ian Wright was one of the first to announce that he will not take part in Saturday night’s programme in ‘solidarity’ with Lineker.
Following Ian Wright’s announcement, Alan Shearer later also announced he would also not be taking part in the show.
Micah Richards and Jermaine Jenas also said they would not be appearing on this weekend’s show.
Viewers of the popular show have also suffered a major blow as commentators have now pulled out.
With commentators also pulling out, BBC confirmed that Match of the Day will air with no host or studio analysis – instead only showing action from the day’s matches.
‘Some of our pundits have said that they don’t wish to appear on the programme while we seek to resolve the situation with Gary,’ the statement read.
‘We understand their position and we have decided that the programme will focus on match action without studio presentation or punditry.’
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How to watch
Saturday’s Match of the Day is set to begin at 10.20pm on BBC One.
Football fans will also be able to watch the show on BBC iPlayer.
With the show taking place without pundits, highlights of the action will not have commentary.
BBC commentators took to Twitter to confirm that they will be ‘stepping down’ from this evening’s broadcast. Instead, fans will be able to watch their teams via the world feed.
‘As commentators on MOTD, we have decided to step down from tomorrow night’s broadcast.
‘We know that football fans want to watch their teams should still be able to do so, as management can use world feed commentary if they wish. However, in the circumstances we do not feel it would be appropriate to take part in the programme,’ the statement reads.
What is the world feed?
The BBC has the option to use the Premier League’s world feed service, which sees their matches covered by in-house commentators broadcast for a global English speaking audience.
BBC Sport is the Premier League’s free-to-air highlights broadcast partner in the UK.
In 2021, it was announced that Premier League clubs had unanimously agreed a three-year renewal of UK live and non-live broadcast agreements with Sky Sports, BT Sport, Amazon Prime Video and BBC Sport from 2022 until 2025.
Matches in the United Kingdom are broadcasted live on television by Sky Sports, BT Sport and Amazon Prime Video.
As well as the BBC’s free-to-air partnership with the Premier League, they also have official audio broadcast rights.
The BBC will have the option to use the official Premier League world feed service
Why is Lineker not presenting?
The BBC forced the Match of the Day host to ‘step back’ from the sports show after he likened language used by the UK Government in regards to an asylum policy to that of Germany in the 1930s.
Lineker shared online a video of Home Secretary Suella Braverman announcing details of her new Illegal Migration Bill with the comment, ‘Good heavens, this is beyond awful’.
He then took to Twitter account, with 8.6million followers, to describe the measures to tackle the migrant crisis as ‘immeasurably cruel’.
When another user accused him of being ‘out of order’, the former England footballer responded: ‘There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries.
Lineker will ‘step back’ from presenting MOTD, pending discussions between with BBC bosses
‘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?’
The BBC then took the decision to take Lineker off air after he reportedly refused to apologise for his tweet likening the Home Office’s immigration policy to Nazi Germany.
A spokesperson for the BBC 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.
Lineker will step back from presenting the popular football show, pending further discussions between the star and BBC bosses about his use of social media, the corporation said.
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