BBC backtracks on Lineker over tweet slamming UK asylum plan

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — The BBC says sports commentator Gary Lineker will return to the airwaves. Britain’s national broadcaster has reversed the former soccer great’s suspension for a post on Twitter that had criticized the British government’s new asylum policy. BBC Director-General Tim Davie said Monday that “I look forward to him presenting our coverage this coming weekend.” The BBC was forced to scrap much of its weekend sports programming after commentators, analysts and Premier League players refused to appear on air as a show of support for Lineker. Lineker was suspended Friday after he compared the Conservative government’s language about migrants to that used in Nazi Germany.