GB News has been at the centre of more than 200 complaints made to Ofcom regarding their ‘alternative’ Match of the Day episode that aired on Saturday night (March 11) during Gary Lineker’s suspension. Match of the Day fell silent on Saturday night on the BBC, and aired for a little over 20 minutes as Gary Lineker was suspended due to a tweet. In solidarity, Alan Shearer and Ian Wright also stepped back from their duties, meaning no experts or hosts were present. In midst of this, GB News decided to air their own version of Match of the Day, without actually showing any football, which has since sparked hundreds of complaints due to comments made. Mark Dolan announced on Saturday: “We are the people’s channel, and the people need commentary, they need punditry, Match of the Day clocks in at seven million viewers a week, so if the BBC will not serve that audience then GB News with Mark Dolan tonight are happy to step in. It’s going to be the Alternative Match of the Day, I am Gary Lineker.” Dolan also went on to explain how the show works, as GB News do not have any rights to show football, saying: “We won’t be able to show live or recorded footage of goals or anything like that. What we will have is top level punditry, so we will have an array of political-free footballers.” During the episode, co-host Patrick Christys has received backlash over comments which viewers branded ‘homophobic’. The co-host was talking about a match between Leeds and Brighton, and mocked rainbow flags. Talking about the match, Christys said: ‘“Brighton, I’ve never been to. Though I imagine that Gary Lineker would quite like Brighton, because it’s full of rainbow flags and woke people.” The comment has racked up more than 200 Ofcom complaints.
