LONDON: English sports broadcaster Gary Lineker has revealed he received threats after appearing to calling for Israel’s banning from international sporting events, The Guardian reported.
In a retweet, the 63-year-old former international footballer posted the message by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, which he subsequently deleted.
But a source told The Guardian that the former England star had misinterpreted the post as saying that the ban had already been carried out.
Lineker said he had received threats as a result of his retweet but added: “It’s not about me. I am not the victim here.”
Early last year, the broadcaster and longtime “Match of the Day” host was suspended by the BBC after comparing former home secretary Suella Braverman’s comments on immigration to rhetoric from Nazi Germany.
Lineker said that social media, including X, is hosting content relating to the Israel-Hamas war that is “so toxic.”
He added: “Everybody I talk to, every single person I know, is going: What? What is happening?’ But the minute you open your mouth — well, not my mouth, but the minute I tweet a little bit — it’s so toxic.
“If you lean to one side or the other, the levels of attack are extraordinary. How could it be controversial to want peace? I just don’t understand it.
“You don’t need to be Islamophobic to condemn Hamas, or antisemitic to condemn Israel. But at the moment it’s just awful. Awful.”
Lineker has come under fire over his stance on the war, with the broadcaster saying that children’s casualty figures in Gaza make him “feel sick.”
He added: “But I don’t see it as a Jewish thing. I see it as the Israeli government. Obviously, they’re responding to Oct. 7, but crikey, one atrocity does not deserve 80 atrocities. Or more.”
The TV host said he had cut down his time on social media as a result of the “toxicity.”
Lineker added: “Before, if I was killing time … I’d just be trawling through social media, getting irritated and depressed by world news.”