Jurgen Klopp insists he ‘CANNOT understand’ why the BBC dropped Gary Lineker from Match of the Day

Jurgen Klopp has given his full backing to Gary Lineker and insisted there is no reason why he should have been stepped down from presenting Match of the Day.

Liverpool’s manager, speaking after his side had lost 1-0 at Bournemouth, was adamant that Lineker was speaking about human rights and was puzzled as to why there had been such a storm around the tweet the 62-year-old published earlier this week.

Klopp said: ‘They asked him to step down for the things he said? So my problem with the situation how I understand it – and I’m not native – is that I cannot see any reason why they would ask anyone to step back for saying that. I can’t. I’m not sure if that’s a language issue or not.

‘But that’s the world we are living in. Everybody is so concerned about doing things in the right manner, saying the right stuff to everybody, and if you don’t do that you create a shit storm which we didn’t have when we were young.

‘It’s a really difficult world to live in. If I understand it right then this is about an opinion about human rights. That should be possible to say. What I don’t understand is why everyone goes on Twitter and says something. I don’t understand the social media part of it. I’m too old for that.

Tonight’s episode of Match of the Day is in major doubt, with organisers locked in talks over whether the show can go ahead following mass walkouts in the wake of Gary Lineker’s axing

‘If I’ve got it right then for me there’s no reason (for the BBC to have stood Lineker down).’

There was a BBC presence at the Vitality Stadium in the press box but nobody from the organisation conducted interviews afterwards.

Asked whether he would have spoken to the BBC, Klopp replied: ‘I’m not so much in the situation to be honest. It’s not that the guy with the BBC mic today is obviously a bad person. I heard about the rules of the BBC that you aren’t allowed to have these kind of opinions.

‘How I said: a difficult world to live in, to fulfil all the expectations and the rules, especially in public.’

Liverpool’s monumental 7-0 victory over their bitter rivals Manchester United last weekend provided the tonic to a disappointing campaign at Anfield this season.

Jurgen Klopp admitted Bournemouth deserved their 1-0 victory over Liverpool on Saturday

But old habits crept in once again at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday, as Liverpool were undone by the Premier League’s bottom-placed side, who provisionally climbed out of the relegation zone thanks to Philip Billing’s first-half strike.

Commenting on the match, Klopp added: ‘What can I say? It was never really our game. We were dominant in the first half but mostly we put ball in at the wrong moment against a compact side.

‘They had their counter-attacks they wanted to have. I really think the spaces we had to play were super clear, super open.

‘The rest was more or less busy with covering other spaces, we didn’t use that often enough, didn’t enjoy the challenge to face a deep, compact side. It’s clear we cannot get through with all the balls but it was like we didn’t get through and things didn’t work out. 

‘Little things which make a massive difference and then we go 1-0 down, not helpful obviously in the counter-attack.

‘They did the same stuff but it was successful enough because we didn’t defend it well and then I thought we started pretty well in the second half and then got the penalty and we missed it and after that we were in a real rush and didn’t create enough really and that’s it.’

As a result of the mass boycotts in solidarity with Lineker, Saturday’s Match of the Day was under major threat – with beleaguered BBC bosses discussing whether they could air the show without commentary.

Lineker, who arrived at the King Power to watch Leicester on Saturday following his temporary axing, was told that he either had to stop his politicised tweeting or quit the BBC altogether

Presenter Alex Scott stepped down from her role on Football Focus in solidarity with Lineker

In the backlash that followed the broadcaster’s dropping of the host, commentators and pundits including Alan Shearer and Ian Wright said they would not work on the Saturday-night staple. 

Sportsmail understands that the BBC had been unable to secure alternative television commentary for today’s Premier League games but have decided not to drop the show completely from tonight’s schedule. 

Mark Chapman refused to host Radio 5 Live Sport while presenters Alex Scott and Kelly Sommers joined the boycott, which has seen Football Focus and Final Score canned. 

Cancelling the programme altogether would put the BBC in breach of a £70million-a-year contract with the Premier League.