BBC receives complaint over Gary Lineker ‘bald’ jokes on Match of the Day

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Gary Lineker’s “bald jokes” on Match of the Day triggered a complaint to the BBC, the presenter has revealed.

The sports broadcaster made a comment about a “real hair-raising” start to the Premier League season – “unless, of course, you are Alan Shearer and Danny Murphy”.

A clip from the programme on Saturday shows Lineker’s co-hosts Shearer and Murphy look at each other as they smile and shake their heads.

But according to the former professional football player, someone took offence to his comment and complained to the BBC.

In a tweet on Tuesday, he wrote: “The BBC has received a complaint about bald jokes on @BBCMOTD (genuinely). Very unfair I feel to call @alanshearer @IanWright0 & Danny Murphy jokes.”

BBC Sport also shared a clip of the footage on its Twitter account on Saturday, adding: “What a start to the second show of the season...”

One Twitter user posted beneath the video: “Please stop with the bald jokes! Not funny!”

While others responded to Lineker’s tweet to say they were bald and had not been offended, and one simply wrote “snowflakes”.

Lineker’s “hair-raising” comment is not the first time he has joked about baldness with his co-host Shearer.

In 2016, he replied to a photograph of himself next to Shearer by writing: “Jeez, my bald spot is nearly as large as yours.”

Lineker is the BBC’s top earner with an annual salary of between £1,750,000 and £1,754,999.

A spokeswoman for the BBC told The Independent the corporation does not disclose complaint figures and would, therefore, not be commenting on the issue.