Gary Lineker defends 'good joke' about England Lionesses

England footballing legend Gary Lineker has insisted he will not be "bullied" into censoring himself on Twitter, after he deleted a message poking fun at Chloe Kelly's goal celebration during the European Championship final on Sunday. The Match of the Day presenter remained defiant over his "funny" tweets amid the "ludicrous" backlash over his comment after Kelly removed her shirt, exposing her sports bra, the Telegraph reports

Lineker had quipped "Kelly is England’s heroine, bra none”, but deleted the tweet after receiving crude replies, as well as complaints from users who had taken offence. The England veteran was accused of "casual sexism" after tweeting, and feminist campaigners branded the remark "misogynist".

But Lineker told Telegraph Sport: "It was ludicrous. But it was just a few people who, I think, weren’t watching the football match. So they’ve automatically thought I was making a sexist comment because women wear bras."

But Lineker told Telegraph Sport: "It was ludicrous. But it was just a few people who, I think, weren’t watching the football match. So they’ve automatically thought I was making a sexist comment because women wear bras."

He said he removed the tweet as those not watching the game had "taken umbrage" and hadn't appreciated the context, adding: "So, therefore, I thought, ‘There’ll be other people like that, so I’ll take it down’. Because it doesn’t hurt to take anything down." He said he had shown the comment to feminist friends before posting, who had said: "Good joke. Absolutely fine."

Lineker said: "I’m not easily bullied. I think about my tweets all the time. That’s why I thought about that one. Because I thought it was quite funny. It was just a play on words, like I do all the time, in