Match Of The Day Draws Additional 500,000 Viewers – Gary Lineker

The furore started when Lineker compared the UK government to Germany (Picture: BBC)

Saturday night’s limited Match Of The Day installment was watched by over 2million viewers, according to BBC News.

This comes after football pundit Gary Lineker compared the government’s new migration policy, which seeks to block boats arriving in the UK, to Germany in the 1930s.

The 62-year-old has become a national hero after refusing to back down over his comments, which angered members of the Tory government.

Celebrities, including Dan Walker and Piers Morgan, have defended the former player’s right to free speech and condemned the BBC’s response.

The football highlights programme was viewed by nearly half a million more than last Saturday’s show, which had an audience of 2.1million, according to BARB overnight figures.

However, the show was radically different as it aired for only 20 minutes and did not include accompanying commentary or analysis from pundits or even its famous theme tune – instead broadcasting only short highlight clips of the day’s matches.

Despite hosting the show since 1999, tweets Gary made earlier this week has resulted in him being asked to ‘step back’ from presenting duties for the time-being.

On Friday, March 10, the BBC released their statement indicating that Gary would step down while they investigated.

The statement in full 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.’

Gary is continuing to receive a wave of support from fans and fellow presenters (Picture: Getty Images)

‘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.’

Gary’s fellow commentators and pundits rushed to support the star with Ian Wright, the former Arsenal legend and MOTD staple, tweeting: ‘Everybody knows what Match of the Day means to me, but I’ve told the BBC I won’t be doing it tomorrow. Solidarity.’

He was joined by former Newcastle star, Alan Shearer, who said: ‘I have informed the BBC that I won’t be appearing on MOTD tomorrow night.’