Mystery surrounds the fate of the blue Twitter tick of the UK’s most high-profile footballer turned TV presenter, Gary Lineker.
A fan first spotted that Lineker’s blue tick had gone missing on Saturday – this despite Lineker being one of the country’s most celebrated tweeters, with 8.9million followers hanging on his every word from football commentary to opinions on immigration policy.
It was the latter that caused a huge stir three weeks ago when Lineker’s employer, the BBC, decided he had crossed the line on the impartiality required of its staff, and suspended him from his football highlights show Match of the Day.
When dozens of BBC Sports staff both on and off screen boycotted their shows in support of Lineker, Match of the Day had to be repackaged with no faces in the studio, and the weekend sports coverage schedule was thrown into chaos. Lineker was reinstated the following week.
Lineker appears as confused as anyone as to the reason for his missing blue tick. He replied to one enquirer, “No idea, I’m under review, apparently.”
And when someone joked that he hadn’t paid his £8 bill (the new fee levied by Twitter for blue ticks and other privileges on the platform) Lineker explained, “I’ve actually been paying it for a while. Only for the ‘Edit’ button, but nevertheless.”
Over to you, Elon.
