Gary Lineker 'pushes boundaries' says former BBC boss as broadcaster deemed 'provocative'
Gary Lineker has been deemed 'provocative' by a BBC boss
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Gary Lineker has become a point of controversy for the BBC in recent years following continuous rows about the broadcaster's impartiality "breaches."
While the football pundit, 63, has kept his important role in the corporation, former BBC chairwoman Dame Elan Closs Stephens has deemed him "provocative".
Closs Stephens held the role at the BBC between June 2023 and March of this year, a time period fraught with chaos surrounding Lineker over his political posts on social media.
Just before this in March 2023, Lineker criticised the government’s immigration policy on social media platform X and was subsequently removed from Match of the Day.
The fallout caused several other famous faces from the company to step down in support of the sports broadcaster, who was then reinstated by the BBC.
Lineker had likened the former Conservative government’s policies to that of 1930s Germany, spurring a huge response and a debate about whether sports pundits working for corporations should be able to freely comment about political events.
Gary Lineker has been deemed 'provocative' by a BBC boss
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New guidelines came into force late last year but it hasn’t stopped Lineker from causing controversy – with a recent row sparked after he appeared to endorse the banning of the Israeli football team.
Closs Stephens remarked in a recent interview: "Lineker's courage and folly is that he pushes those boundaries to the extreme."
Speaking to BBC Radio Cymru, the she explained: "Every time I went to see the secretary of state, Gary Lineker was the first thing mentioned.
"And I have to say he [Lineker] is provocative too - he pops up every now and then - and he doesn't make life easy.
Gary Lineker has come under fire in the past for his controversial political posts
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"And he pushes the boundaries. I mean, we had a guidebook on what you could say on social media."
Despite this, Lineker recently talked about how the BBC "love" him to use his platform.
“The BBC love me on there [social media] because I promote their shows,” he stated at a Broadcasting Press Guild event before going on to describe last year’s controversy as a "lover’s tiff".
He continued: “I think it was a little bit unfortunate but we are fine again now. I’ve worked for the BBC for 30 years and we had one little fallout.
Gary Lineker was vriefly removed from BBC Match of the Day for 'breaching' guidelines
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“I know the guidelines really, really well. I was partly involved in drawing them up with John [Hardie],” he added.
Once the guidelines were published, Lineker had taken to social media to brand them as “very sensible”.
GB News has reached out to Lineker's representatives for a comment.