Alan Shearer talks of ‘difficult week’ as he and Gary Lineker return to MotD

theguardian.com:

Gary Lineker returned to presenting Match of the Day on Saturday evening after a row that threatened to topple the BBC chairman and director general.

As the former England international introduced live BBC coverage of the FA Cup quarter-final between Manchester City and Burnley, pundit Alan Shearer touched on the recent controversy. “I just need to clear up and wanted to say how upset we were that all the audiences who missed out on last weekend,” Shearer said. “It was a really difficult situation for everyone concerned and through no fault of their own, some really great people in TV and in radio were put in an impossible situation and that wasn’t fair. “So it’s good to get back to some sort of normality and be talking about football again.” Lineker responded: “Absolutely, I echo those sentiments.” Before the show began, Lineker shared a photograph of himself in a BBC studio alongside Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, who boycotted the show last weekend in solidarity, with the caption “Teammates”.

He also tweeted one of himself at the stadium with the caption: “Ah the joys of being allowed to stick to football.” Mark Chapman will host the Match of the Day highlights show later on Saturday.

Ah the joys of being allowed to stick to football. pic.twitter.com/E2JME7teDs Lineker, 62, was suspended from the BBC’s flagship football programme last weekend for a tweet comparing the language used about the government’s policy to deal with small boats to 1930s Germany.