Gary Lineker has been accused of mocking football fans angered by the BBC’s decision to axe its traditional classified football results.
Lineker was criticised after Saturday’s Match of the Day programme started with last week’s Premier League results, which left many people furious.
The former England striker then added fuel to the fire by saying: “‘Just in case you couldn’t find the scores anywhere else last week.” whilst smirking.
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Fans were quick to show their discontent over Lineker’s antics on social media.
One fan said: “Not impressed with their snide p***-taking re results. Read the room eh?”
Another tweeted: “What was that b*****ks at the start of MOTD? Complete arrogance and misses the point about the classified football results.”
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A third fan added: “Lineker might think he's being so clever and edgy with his sneers over the classified football results on MOTD but they mattered so many people... Plus such comments only serve to keep the story going.”
Lineker responded on Twitter over the anger directed towards him.
Since the news broke that the BBC were to axe their famous classified football results on its Sports Report programme, many people criticised their decision. Including the likes of John Motson, Mark Lawrenson and Des Lynam.
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Motson said: “I’m very disappointed. I've been a fan of Sports Report for 60 years and I will miss the classified results very deeply.”
This backlash has caused the BBC to release a statement to explain their decision.
The statement said: “We appreciate the strength of feeling towards the classified football results within Sports Report. It's always difficult when a programme with a special history changes, but there are good reasons for the change.
“With the addition of the 5.30pm live Premier League match to our coverage, Sports Report has been condensed into a shorter programme - cut from 1 hour to 25 minutes. The classifieds were taking around 5-7 minutes to read, which would have taken up around a third of the programme - constraining the range of sport we could cover.
“We'd like to assure our listeners that results from across the football leagues will still be shared during the programme and through the afternoon.
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“Results are also available in full on the BBC Sport website and during Final Score on BBC One. Having a live match at 5.30 is a great addition to the 5 Live schedule.”
Topics: Gary Lineker, Premier League, Football
Marcus Chan