Gary Lineker row hits BBC’s Match of the Day 2 and WSL coverage
Disruption to sports programming continues into second day as pressure grows on BBC chairman Richard Sharp
The BBC is expected to severely reduce a second day of sports programming amid a deepening row over the suspension of Gary Lineker.
The corporation is poised to cut back Match of the Day 2 and coverage of the Women's Super League match between Manchester United and Chelsea after a mass walkout by BBC stars.
The BBC chair, Richard Sharp, was facing growing calls to stand down over his ties to the Conservative party, as Labour and the Liberal Democrats said he was unfit to oversee the broadcaster during an impartiality crisis.
Lineker's son, George Lineker, said his father would not apologise for his tweet comparing language used to set out the government's immigration plans to that used by Germany in the 30s". He suggested his father could leave the BBC at the end of his contract in 2025.
Mark Thompson, the former BBC director general, said Lineker appeared to have committed a technical" breach of impartiality rules but that the tweets fell into a grey area" and had kidnapped" the debate away from immigration policy.
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