41 of the funniest memes about the Match of the Day chaos

Match of the Day has been plunged into chaos after Gary Lineker was forced to 'step back' from his role as presenter by the BBC following his critical comments about the government's migrant policy.

In a statement, the BBC said: “The BBC has been in extensive discussions with Gary and his team in recent days. We have said that we consider his recent social media activity to be a breach of our guidelines.

“The BBC has decided that he will step back from presenting Match of the Day until we’ve got an agreed and clear position on his use of social media.

“When it comes to leading our football and sports coverage, Gary is second to none. We have never said that Gary should be an opinion free zone, or that he can’t have a view on issues that matter to him, but we have said that he should keep well away from taking sides on party political issues or political controversies.”

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Lineker's stance on the matter has been supported by the likes of Nicola Sturgeon, Alastair Campbell and Jeremy Corbyn. Lineker meanwhile has since seen his fellow MOTD presenters and pundits Ian Wright, Alan Shearer, Alex Scott, Jermaine Jenas and Micah Richards all state that they would not appear on the show either. In addition, commentators on the game will not be covering the matches as usual. Players will also not be made to conduct post-match interviews with the BBC.

Saturday night's edition of the show which will feature games from the likes of Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur will go ahead but without any presenters or punditry.

However, the pandemonium this has caused has only helped to generate some great reactions and jokes on social media.

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