Current Events > Gary Lineker calls US an 'extraordinarily racist country' infuriating Americans.

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Gary Lineker has branded the United States an extraordinarily racist country as the BBC became embroiled in a new row over the former England striker-turned-TV presenter's political pronouncements.

Lineker had already angered current World Cup hosts Qatar by voicing concerns over its human rights record. The Qataris hit back over what they said was the BBC's very racist coverage of the tournament.

Lineker responded by doubting whether Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy had even been watching the corporations output and doubled down on his denial of accusations he had failed to engage with them before criticising the event live on air.

But in showing he was prepared to do the same with the next World Cup he took a swipe at co-hosts the United States, calling it an extraordinarily racist country.

Lineker spoke out a fortnight after Hassan Al-Thawadi, the Qatar 2022 secretary general, went on the attack over the BBCs decision to begin its World Cup coverage with a monologue from the Match of the Day presenter about the scandals to plague the build-up to the tournament, and to focus on those at the expense of the opening ceremony.

In an interview with The News Agents, Lineker said: We pointed facts out at the beginning of the tournament; those facts remain. So, lots of people were killed doing the stadiums. Yes, the stadiums are extraordinary, but at a great price. Homophobia is an issue here, womens rights are a little bit of an issue here.

For me, it was always really more about the corruption side of it because, as I said previously, I think pretty much every country, including our own, has got issues. And were off to America in four years time, with Canada and Mexico, but obviously Americas an extraordinarily racist country.

So, theres always issues but it was more the fact that we just pointed out a few facts and particularly the aspect of it being so corrupt they said it was going to be summer and it was in the winter. I dont think anythings particularly changed but its been a cracking tournament but thats football; football is a wonderful sport.

Asked if there had been dialogue with tournament bosses since his opening monologue that so upset them, he replied: I doubt theyve been watching, to be perfectly honest. There was one bit where the guy went on a radio station back home, I think hes one of the organisers, and said he tried to reach out to me time and time again to get an interview and that, frankly, wasnt true at all, neither to myself nor my agent. And then he said it was through the BBC and the BBC have no record of it whatsoever.

Telegraph Sport has seen emails showing attempts were made to set up a meeting between Al-Thawadi and BBC presenters and pundits before Aprils World Cup draw.

A source also said talks with senior executives at the corporation floundered because they refused to commit to getting the likes of Lineker in the same room as the tournament chief.

Linekers interview also saw him asked whether he would support a law change banning ITV showing Englands World Cup matches over the curse that has seen them repeatedly crash out of tournaments when on the channel, including against France on Saturday.

Im not going to join in that - that will create terrible headlines, he initially said, before adding: Obviously, its completely superstitious but why not? Why not?

Pressed on whether there was an ITV curse, he replied: It felt like it the other night again but obviously that sort of stuff is nonsense. And I used to be very superstitious about these things, but I learned a long time ago that superstition is unlucky.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/8/4/AAZiH8AAD_Ps.jpg

For American users, he's sort of the equivlent of William "The Refrigerator" Perry or Mark Messier. Old popular sports star

He keeps getting in trouble for saying leftist opinions in public despite being paid by the BBC which is tax payer funded. Would be like if a PBS host kept saying their political opinions. The UK doesn't mind when right wing guys say it but Gary is the first non conservative to ever do so and it keeps causing a fuss.

Racist and sexist.

We kinda are tbh

The US is pretty racist and misogynistic. This is coming from someone who is black and experienced the racist side of it. There's just some places we just can't go even if we wanted to.

Are we going to act like England isnt lol.

I4NRulez posted...

Are we going to act like England isnt lol.

To be fair to Gary he did say

For me, it was always really more about the corruption side of it because, as I said previously, I think pretty much every country, including our own, has got issues."

But I can't say anymore on the matter or else Tom Clark or Error will moderate me if I talk about either the UK conservative party or my own experiences or other people's experiences or historical events or stats and figures in the UK.

It was just a couple years ago the President of the United States described white supremacist protestors as, "good people."

Kinda hard to argue that Lineker is wrong.

USA have moved forward a lot since the Jim Crow laws, but it still got a long road to walk.

Objectively: yes
Comparatively: not so much

Extraordinarily racist?

I guess thats subjective. Of course theres racism coming from different people of every background possible. But I think the US just obsesses about it.

Who?

A major party in this country is literally struggling to condemn a guy who went on a podcast and repeatedly said "I love nazis and Adolf Hitler".

UnfairRepresent posted...

To be fair to Gary he did say

For me, it was always really more about the corruption side of it because, as I said previously, I think pretty much every country, including our own, has got issues."

But I can't say anymore on the matter or else Tom Clark or Error will moderate me if I talk about either the UK conservative party or my own experiences or other people's experiences or historical events or stats and figures in the UK.

Error is not from the UK, why do you think hes moderated you about it?

LightningAce11 posted...

Error is not from the UK, why do you think hes moderated you about it?

simple, he just likes modding people

LightningAce11 posted...

Error is not from the UK, why do you think hes moderated you about it?

He doesn't like me, hasn't for about a decade now. I think it just stems from me scaring off Admiral.

He makes topics insulting me, invited me to his board just so he could instantly ban me from it, openly promoted imposter accounts insulting me, ignores other users doing absolutely grotesque things that would be instant bans on every other website when they direct it at me.

I've just not taken the bait and ignore him as much as possible now but he's still mad at me for some reason.

bo_danvers posted...

Who?

I literally said in the OP:

For American users, he's sort of the equivlent of William "The Refrigerator" Perry or Mark Messier. Old popular sports star

He's right

Yea, he's not wrong about that.

Random non American, former athlete, says a thing. More news at 7:00!

Random known Trump supporter comes into topic bitter

Irony posted...

Random known Trump supporter comes into topic bitter

Lol.

I have never supported Trump. He is a criminal that should be charged with treason and every GOP member that supported his failed coup should be out of office.

Rethink you tags homie.

UnfairRepresent posted...

But I can't say anymore on the matter or else Tom Clark or Error will moderate me if I talk about either the UK conservative party or my own experiences or other people's experiences or historical events or stats and figures in the UK.

Hey, I'd definitely agree with you that there's deep issues with ingrained racism here, and it's grown exponentially worse in recent years with the likes of Priti Patel and Suella Braverman's disgusting "ship people to Rwanda" policies. Absolutely fuck the Tories.

We are far more diverse than most countries so overall we are not super terrible. That said a certain orange messiah made it ok to be more open about being racist when in the past they had to keep it on the down low.

I like how every vote has been yes or no

No one is unsure, everyone is absolutely certain that the US is racist or isn't racist.

America was built on too much racism to ever truly be free of it, at least, not in this century or likely the next.

That being said, America has race issues because it has the diversity for them to even be an issue. Most of the world has overall very homogeneous populations.

America seems to be the only country actively discussing racism

nexigrams posted...

It was just a couple years ago the President of the United States described white supremacist protestors as, "good people."

Kinda hard to argue that Lineker is wrong.

He also argued that a Hispanic judge shouldn't be allowed to judge a case involving a Hispanic defendant

But people ignored that one.

The guy isn't wrong, and this is coming from an American.

its very racist against black people, yes.

A lot of white people are pretty racist, but they just aren't really aware. When there are any race disparities at all, it's generally a long term result of discrimination with varying level of subtlety. But they're not really the only ones. Generally minorities are pretty racist as well, and it tends to be born from either the said disparity or from the hate they've received over the years.

Some people are very good about like giving that benefit of the doubt. But it's a massive societal problem. Until it's a pretty strong majority in terms of just general people power level (wealth, influence, etc) who aren't willing to be racist, America can't be fixed. They shouldn't be offended either, when they're called out, because it's a pretty obvious truth.

Also it's not as if we literally recently elected a president who ran off a very racist premise to begin with.

I'd like to think that there was more active effort in schools when I went back in the days, but... I dunno in hindsight a lot of racist things got said to me and I just wasn't really aware. Lots of push back against political correctness too, even though they're like the easiest step towards reducing racism.