It forced director general Davie to make an intervention on air. Interviewed by BBC news, the former Conservative Party local council candidate said: “We are working very hard to resolve the situation and make sure we get output back on-air.

“I don’t want to go into too much details about the discussion. Gary Lineker is a superb broadcaster, the best in the business, that’s not in debate. He is an outstanding broadcaster and success for me is Gary gets back on-air.”

The BBC hopes that Match of the Day will return in full next weekend. However, Mark Chapman is still currently down to host the programme on March 18.

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