Gary Lineker declared it was "good to be here" as he returned to his presenting duties for the BBC's football coverage on Saturday (18.03.23).
Gary Lineker has returned to his TV work
The footballer-turned-TV host was asked to step back from presenting flagship football show 'Match of the Day' last week in a row over impartiality after he tweeted criticism of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s policy on refugees - prompting a mass walk out of BBC pundits and presenters who stood by him - but after reaching a resolution, he was back alongside Alan Shearer and Micah Richards to front the network's FA Cup coverage.
Alan addressed the situation - which saw 'Match of the Day' reduced to just 20 minutes with no commentary or analysis - at the beginning of the show after Gary's welcome.
He said: "I just need to clear up and wanted to say how upset we were for all the audiences who missed out on last weekend.
"It was a really difficult situation for everyone concerned and through no fault of their own, some really great people on 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."
Gary added: "Absolutely, echo those sentiments."
Before the show began, Gary shared a photo of himself with his co-presenters on Twitter, which he captioned: "Teammates".
He also wrote: “Ah the joys of being allowed to stick to football.”
Mark Chapman hosted the 'Match of the Day' highlights show later on Saturday and stressed he had "been booked weeks ago" to take the reigns.
Following last week's row, BBC director-general Tim Davie issued an apology and confirmed an independent review had been launched to examine the corporation's guidelines around social media use, particularly when it comes to freelance stars like Gary.
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