
The Sun reported on Friday that the BBC was under pressure to sack Gary Lineker after the Match of the Day presenter called the treatment towards child refugees leaving the Calais camp “hideously racist and utterly heartless”.
People have since formulated an idea to show their support for Lineker.
Lineker's comments were in response to insinuations that child refugees coming to the UK were over 18-years-old, and calls from Tory MP David Davies for dental checks to verify their age.
Lineker also shared the rumour that one of the migrants was a Home Office interpreter, which the department has since dismissed.
Following the newspaper's attack, a leader in the the Sun further berated Lineker.
The BBC has responded to accusations that Lineker should be impartial by pointing out that he is a freelance broadcaster, and was tweeting from his personal account.
Coincidentally, Lineker has been nominated for best TV presenter by the National Television Awards (NTA), which is sponsored by, wouldn't you know it, the Sun.
Twitter users have cleverly pointed out there was still time for him to win before the vote closes on the evening of Sunday 23 October by voting for him here.
“I’m sure no-one would be so immature as to troll theSun by voting for Gary Lineker to win a Sun-sponsored TV award, using this link,” one user wrote.
The tweet, which has so far been retweeted more than 7,000 times, has received some hilarious responses:
@stianwestlake @crookedfootball oh no, I just accidentally followed the link, skipped through 13 other categories and voted for Gary. Damn.— Simon 🌱🇪🇺 (@Simon 🌱🇪🇺) 1477126561
.@stianwestlake @crookedfootball I had no idea I could be so childish!— Keith Hayward (@Keith Hayward) 1477127863
@Mirthematician @stianwestlake @crookedfootball I'm such an idiot, I done the same thing with 4 different email addresses. What am I like.— Ulysses (@Ulysses) 1477131053
@stianwestlake I've shared on Fb too to warn others not to be immature.— Dave Marchant (@Dave Marchant) 1477131046
@stianwestlake Ooops! I voted for Gary - how absent-minded of me! It's nice to have this little support group for the accident prone😬😎— CheekiestHeart🍷🇪🇺💉😷 (@CheekiestHeart🍷🇪🇺💉😷) 1477151866
Lineker himself has asked people not to vote in the award for him, presumably because he does not want to win it if it's only for reasons motivated by his conflict with the Sun:
Please don't. https://t.co/CY08j9DLTW— Gary Lineker 💙 (@Gary Lineker 💙) 1477136560
People clearly listened:
Tough luck, Gary.