Conor McNamara reveals he and his colleagues will ‘STEP DOWN’ from Saturday’s MOTD broadcast too
Now the commentators are boycotting too! Conor McNamara reveals he and his colleagues will ‘STEP DOWN’ from Saturday’s Match of the Day in support of Gary Lineker as ‘they don’t feel it would be appropriate’ in light of BBC dropping host over ‘Nazi’ tweet
- BBC commentators have joined refusing pundits on the Match of the Day
- Conor McNamara revealed he and his colleagues won’t be covering games
- The BBC earlier announced Saturday’s show would go ahead with just action
The BBC’s decision to remove Gary Lineker from Match of the Day hosting duties has caused chaos amongst the show’s production team with commentators joining fellow pundits and presenters in refusing to feature in Saturday’s show.
Long-serving BBC match commentator Conor McNamara revealed on Friday night that he will not carry out his recording duties for Saturday’s Premier League highlights show as he stands-by the axed Lineker.
McNamara made the announcement on his Twitter profile where he wrote: ‘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.’
BBC’s Match of the Day commentators have revealed they won’t be featuring on Saturday’s show
McNamara revealed that he and his colleagues wouldn’t be working on the upcoming episode in a show of support for Gary Lineker
BBC MOTD commentator Conor McNamara revealed he and his colleagues wouldn’t be covering Saturday’s matches on the show
The BBC made the decision to temporarily cut Lineker from his multi-million salaried role as the iconic shows lead presenter after the 62-year-old recently compared the UK Government to Nazi Germany over their attempts to prevent illegal immigrants making the dangerous boat crossing to the country.
The decision was taken by BBC Director General Tim Davie came after Lineker was found to have breached the publicly-funded company’s social media guidelines.
McNamara broke the news online as he posted an update on the BBC’s latest upcoming episode that had already seen pundits rule themselves out of the running to replace Lineker.
Fellow MOTD commentator Steve Wilson also confirmed the news as he posted an almost word-for-word statement as McNamara, demonstrating the decision was taken by the commentary team as a collective.
It is expected that the BBC will rely on agency commentators to provide match commentary for Saturday’s six Premier League matches.
Lineker’s co-hosts and friends Alan Shearer and Ian Wright were some of the first to take a stand against the BBC before other big names began to follow suit.
Sky Sports commentator and pundit Gary Neville showed that rival broadcasters also supported Lineker as he blamed the ‘Tories and the system’ for the MOTD presenters removal.
Meanwhile outspoken journalist celebrity Piers Morgan also backed Lineker and suggested he tell the BBC to ‘go f*** themselves’.
McNamara’s tweet confirmed that the show’s commentators were taking a stance against the BBC
Lineker has been the high-profile face of the BBC’s football coverage but won’t be a part of MOTD’s immediate future
Lineker could return to front the show in the future but won’t be a part of the show in the immediate future.
While presenting and punditry teams are behind Lineker, BBC sources told Sportsmail there is a division among production staff.
Some sympathise with Lineker but others feel he is asking for preferential treatment by effectively ignoring BBC impartiality guidelines.
BBC bosses had told Lineker either to stop his politicised posts or give up working for the corporation.
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