Wright vowed to quit if the BBC sacked Lineker (Picture: James Baylis – AMA/Getty Images)
Ian Wright has said managers at the BBC caused a ‘hot mess’ at the weekend after asking Gary Lineker to step away from Match Of The Day.
The BBC asked Lineker to step down from hosting Match of the Day after his post on Twitter in which he compared the language used in a Home Office video on immigration policy with Nazi Germany.
In a quick U-turn, Lineker was reinstated by the BBC on Monday morning, while the broadcaster confirmed it will launch an independent review on its social media guidelines.
Within that time, the likes of Wright and Alan Shearer stood by Lineker, refusing to step in, while he also garnered support from celebrities like Piers Morgan, and a petition calling on him to be reinstated reached more than 200,000 signatures.
Wright also vowed to leave the BBC if Lineker was sacked, saying: ‘If they do, the BBC get rid of Gary Lineker, I’m out. I’m gone, I’m not staying there’.
He’s now called the BBC drama a ‘hot mess’.
Lineker was asked to step back from hosting MOTD (Picture: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Speaking on podcast Wrighty’s house, the 59-year-old said the row had been a ‘perfect distraction from what really matters’.
He added: ‘For me, they made a hot mess. I’m telling you, this is all from high up, I can’t blame my man (the head of BBC TV Sport) Philip Bernie, the BBC Sports team. All of this is over a tweet.’
It came as those at the broadcaster were invited to lunchtime sessions in Salford on Tuesday so director-general Tim Davie and chief content officer Charlotte Moore could ‘hear from staff, take questions and reflect on the events of the last few days’, the PA news agency understands.
Wright continued: ‘At some stage surely, heads have got to roll…the mismanagement levels of this is, I can’t even tell you, but it’s done, everybody knows how I feel about it.
‘I’m just pleased that it’s kind of come to something.’
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