17 March 2023 , 16:00
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Sometimes you find yourself in an impossible position which is not of your making and you feel helpless to do anything about it.
When Gary Lineker's stand-off with the BBC about a post on Twitter erupted into a boycott across the corporation's sports department, never in a million years did I think that, as co-host of Six-0-Six, I would be caught in the crossfire. The shows were cancelled last weekend, replaced by pre-recorded programmes, and the most important people – the listeners and fans – lost their voice.
It was only around noon on the Saturday lunchtime – about seven hours before the phone-in lines were due to open – that I heard Sport on Five was being forced off the air and I realised we had to make a choice between solidarity or being ostracised.
There was no picket line to cross as such, but that's how it would have felt. I spoke to several people in the media whose opinions I respect, and one or two said that if I went against the grain, they would have criticised me for doing so. That would have been too much. But as much as I wanted to support Gary, I don't like letting people down.
I love my job on 606, the audience figures are as high as they have ever been and the bosses at BBC Radio 5 Live have been fantastic with me – especially over the last seven days.
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But I'm neither ashamed or afraid to admit it: I didn't want to be vilified for breaking ranks. I was inclined to work, but I didn't have the guts to go through with it.
It would have been a much easier decision to pull out if I had been working on Match of the Day itself, but as I was working on a phone-in on a different medium, that presented me with a terrible dilemma.
Gary Lineker was stood down from Match of the Day after being censored over a tweet criticising the Government (PA)Choosing whether to support Gary or being branded a scab was an impossible balancing act - and nobody wanted to be that scab, so I had no choice but to lie low until it was all sorted.
Although I support Gary's right to free speech on Twitter (and with free speech comes responsibility), I did not want to put my family through the social media pile-on and some of the inevitable headlines which would have followed. This is not about me, my co-host Chris Sutton or any of the pundits who didn't want to appear on MOTD.
I guess the moral of the tale is how powerful social media – and the mainstream media's headlines - have become because the first 'scab' would have been denounced.
You may or may not agree with Gary Lineker's views. But I have enormous respect for Gary – he took over from the great Des Lynam as Match of the Day host and he's anchored it for the last 24 years.
I have appeared on the programme many times myself, and I have shared a studio with him at the World Cup. But some of the vilification of those who did work last weekend was over the top and inexcusable.
BBC Radio commentators John Murray, Alistair Bruce-Ball and Ian Dennis – all of them fantastic broadcasters and top professionals – did not deserve the abuse they were given for going on the air as usual.
The people who subjected them to vile comments have no idea about their contractual arrangements with the BBC and I was disgusted by the poison aimed at them.
To be honest, I didn't realise the strength of feeling would spread from Match of the Day to BBC Sport programmes on the radio, but it was an emotive subject at the top of the national news agenda with feelings running high.
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Robbie Savage's BBC Radio 5Live show Six-0-Six didn't go ahead last weekend (James Baylis - AMA/Getty Images)For the Six-0-Six shows that didn't go ahead, I've offered to reimburse the production staff – the people who take the calls and work behind the scenes in the studio – the fees they couldn't earn last weekend.
Like many pundits, they are freelances. But unlike many pundits, who work for other organisations beyond the BBC, they don't have multiple employers.
They have mortgages to pay, heating bills to pay, they have to put bread on the table like any working household. I hope there are other pundits who would like to do the same thing.
Although I wasn't a ringleader in Six-0-Six being off the air, I feel it's the least I can do. Any aspiring young presenter who was tempted to step into the breach might have been branded an outcast.
Like the fans who were denied their say on another busy weekend of action and talking points, the show could never go on without the backroom production staff. And football without fans is nothing.