Gary Lineker to return as Match of The Day host as BBC apologise to star following tweet row

Gary Lineker will return to his hosting duties and is to receive an apology from BBC bosses over the incident. Lineker was taken off after refusing to delete a tweet which compared the language around the government’s illegal immigration bill to “1930’s Germany”.

The BBC announced on Friday Lineker would be taken off air while an agreement on his social media use was reached. Following the announcement, an array of BBC Sport presenters including Ian Wright, Alan Shearer and Alex Scott stepped back from their presenting duties in solidarity with Lineker.

It led to the BBC airing Match of The Day with no analysis or commentary as well as being forced to cancel other shows such as Football Focus and BBC Radio 5 Live football phone in.

Lineker has been presenting BBC’s flagship football highlights programme, Match of The Day, since the late 1990’s. Before that, he had a successful playing career for England, Leicester City, Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and Barcelona.

Over the weekend, BBC Director General Tim Davie apologised for disruption to BBC Sport programming caused by the incident. He said: “Success for me is getting Gary back on air and together we are giving to the audiences that world-class sports coverage which, as I say, I’m sorry we haven’t been able to deliver today.” The director general said he would "absolutely not" be resigning but admitted "this has been a tough time for the BBC".