What a balls up. England's new patron saint, Gary Lineker, a man holier and more virtuous than Mother Theresa and Gandhi combined, strikes again.
Never one to turn down the chance of some moral posturing, goal hanging PR opportunist Lineker has spoken out about tonight's Champions League final. He tweeted: “first time I'll be cheering for Real Madrid in a Champions League final”.
As a former player for Madrid’s arch-rivals Barcelona, this defection is significant. But why has it happened? Because the German side Dortmund has signed a three-year sponsorship deal with weapons manufacturer Rheinmetall.
Now Gary Lineker is not a stupid person. Following a stellar career on the pitch, and a storied transition to broadcasting – and let me tell you he is worth every penny of that £1.3million a year of license fee payers money to introduce football clips – he is also a leading media entrepreneur, producing some of the most listened to podcasts in the country.
So how did it escape the attention of this bright man, that our democracies and our freedoms are protected and defended by the weapons produced by companies like Rheinmetall? In the same way that weapons firms protected the United Kingdom in the face of Hitler during the Second World War.
In fact, we should big up, not cancel Rheinmetall, who has produced some of the armaments which are now helping Ukraine defend itself against Vladimir Putin. I thought Gary Lineker was very supportive of Ukraine and their battle for survival.
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But now he wants to take away their weapons, does he? I’m so confused. They’re going to need weapons, with which to defend themselves.
They can’t fight by sending off Tweets like Gary does. That won’t save them. In a previously deleted tweet – Gary’s always deleting his tweets – he has said that nuclear weapons have prevented war, but only hypothetically.
What’s hypothetical about the fact that no country with nuclear weapons has ever been invaded? Or that Ukraine WERE, after they got rid of them? Or that the so-called nuclear deterrent single-handedly ended the Cold War. Doesn't sound very hypothetical to me.
For an intelligent man, Gary Lineker says an amazing number of silly things. And for someone so progressive and caring and kind, he says an amazing number of offensive things too. Often at the same time. Including this description of the single biggest attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust – October 7.
The slaughter of over 1,000 innocent people, including youngsters attending a peace music festival, and the taking of over 200 hostages. Or as Gary likes to call it, the Hamas thing. Now many people love Gary Lineker - he has over 8 million followers on Twitter and plenty of folk would argue he has been very consistent about his concerns for human rights, poverty, inequality, and his compassion for refugees – he has even taken refugees into his own home.
He hates war, he hates death, he hates destruction. Who could disagree? But let’s look at actions, not words. Concern for human rights, whilst taking £400,000 a year for four years - from 2009 to 2013 - from the Qatari state to present football.
Qatar, where it is illegal to be gay, sometimes punishable by death, where women are second-class citizens and where modern-day slavery is part of the business model. Perhaps Gary regrets working for the Qatari State broadcaster Al Jazeera at the time.
But there wasn't much sign of regret when he returned to the country to present the 2022 World Cup in stadia built by the aforementioned modern slaves, thousands of whom fell to their death constructing the damn things in perilous working conditions and the crippling 45° centigrade heat.
But that's ok. Because whilst basking in the Qatari sunshine, Gary did a short monologue about the importance of human rights.
Gary Lineker is one of the good guys. The be kind crowd. So kind that this idol of the progressive left battled HMRC in court to reduce his tax bill by almost £5million. So kind that for decades he has flogged junk food to children amid an obesity epidemic.
A guy who is worried about climate change, but has flown around the world, driven fast cars and presented football shows in vast air-conditioned stadia in the desert. His defence at the time – we are all hypocrites.
Are we indeed? With his bizarre boycott over an arms manufacturer, whose products help protect democratic nations against tyrannical regimes, this latest Lineker rant about war, is weapons-grade nonsense. Sorry Gary, but you’re firing blanks.
