George Lineker is not here for people trolling his dad Gary Lineker on social media (Picture: NEIL HALL/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
George Lineker has stood firmly by his dad Gary Lineker’s side throughout the BBC furore that’s consumed headlines over the past two weeks, and on Saturday, George once again jumped to his dad’s defence.
George has publicly supported his famous dad, 62, who sparked intense debates over the BBC’s impartiality rules when he compared the Home Office’s migrant boat policy to Nazi Germany on Twitter, sparking both widespread praise and criticism.
It was confirmed last week that Gary would return to his Match of the Day hosting duties, but clearly, not everyone’s happy about it.
Replying to a photo Gary shared on Twitter of himself back on the job, one person wrote: ‘And the prize for smug t**t of the year goes to.’
Standing up for his dad, George, 31, brilliantly replied: ‘Ah bless you, so bitter.’
George revealed last week that many people have taken aim at him online over the drama surrounding his famous father, despite it not having anything to do with him.
George has publicly supported his famous dad, 62, who sparked intense debates over the BBC’s impartiality rules this month (Picture: David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock)
George called the troll ‘bitter’ (Picture: Twitter)
At one point, George was even sent death threats, prompting Gary to call on Elon Musk, Twitter’s CEO, to look into the situation.
One message sent to George read: ‘Your a mug how dare you stick up for what your s**those of a dad said you need to be burned at the stake [sic].’
The BBC confirmed Gary’s return to hosting duties on March 13 (Picture: DARREN STAPLES/AFP via Getty Images)
Posting the message on his own Twitter page, George wrote: ‘Social media’s mad isn’t it. Over the last few days, on insta – never had so many nice messages. On Twitter – never had so much abuse. It’s not even anything to do with me.’
Gary then wrote to Elon in a public tweet: ‘Is this acceptable @Twitter @elonmusk ? And I don’t mean the grammar.’
The BBC confirmed Gary’s return to hosting duties on March 13.
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After the news broke, the football icon thanked his colleagues for their solidarity, tweeting: ‘After a surreal few days, I’m delighted that we have navigated a way through this.
‘I want to thank you all for the incredible support, particularly my colleagues at BBC Sport, for the remarkable show of solidarity. Football is a team game but their backing was overwhelming.’
George has his dad’s back.