Lineker jibes about his return to BBC's Match of the Day

Gary Lineker made a comeback to the BBC on Saturday and took a jab at his critics who questioned his right to express his opinion on controversial UK immigration policy. The former England striker was absent from last week's edition of Match of the Day following a Twitter post where he criticised the UK government's immigration policy.

As a result, the BBC requested him to step down from hosting the show, leading to several pundits and commentators, such as Alan Shearer and Ian Wright, refusing to participate.

After a much smaller version of the show was aired last weekend, showing only highlights with no analysis or commentary, the BBC confirmed that they would review their social media policy. They also announced that Gary Lineker would be returning to work.

Lineker, who had previously criticised the UK government's immigration policy, was asked to step back from hosting Match of the Day. However, he returned to present Saturday's coverage of the FA Cup game between Manchester City and Burnley.

In a Twitter message posted before coverage began, Lineker wrote:

"Ah the joys of being allowed to stick to football."

At the top of the show, Lineker passed to Shearer, who told viewers:

"I just need to clear up and wanted to say how upset we were that all the audiences missed out on last weekend.

"It was a really difficult situation for everyone concerned and through no fault of their own some really great people in radio and TV were put in an impossible situation and that wasn't fair, so it's good to get back to some sort of normality and be talking about football again."

Lineker added:

"Absolutely echo those sentiments."

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