BBC One has cancelled its Saturday football programmes Football Focus and Final Score today.
It follows presenters and pundits refusing to appear in support of Gary Lineker, who has been taken off air on Match Of The Day over a tweet criticising the UK government’s immigration policy.
Football Focus, originally due to air at 12PM, has been replaced by a repeat of Bargain Hunt.
Host Alex Scott said: “I made a decision last night that even though I love doing football focus and we have had an incredible week winning an SJA award that it just doesn’t feel right going ahead with the show today. Hopefully I will be back in the chair next week…”
Meanwhile instead of Final Score, originally scheduled from 4:30PM, BBC One will broadcast a repeat of The Repair Shop.
Presenter Jason Mohammad tweeted:”As you know, Final Score is a TV show very close to my heart. However – I have this morning informed the BBC that I will not be presenting the show this afternoon on BBC One.”
Yesterday the BBC announced that Gary Lineker would not be fronting Match Of The Day this weekend after his tweet.
A statement from the corporation read: “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.
“The BBC has decided that he will step back from presenting Match of the Day until we’ve got an agreed and clear position on his use of social media.
“When it comes to leading our football and sports coverage, Gary is second to none. We have never said that Gary should be an opinion free zone, or that he can’t have a view on issues that matter to him, but we have said that he should keep well away from taking sides on party political issues or political controversies.”
As of writing, Match Of The Day will go ahead as scheduled tonight but without any presenters or pundits.
The BBC said: “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.
“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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