Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker has been slammed by former Chelsea manager Avram Grant following his decision to “stay silent” over the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Israel-born football manager Grant, 68, issued an emotional statement to Lineker, 62, informing him that he had lost respect for him after he failed to speak out about the October 7 attacks.
In a video monologue, Grant accused the pundit of having a “double standard” when it came to Israel.
“I have a message to Gary Lineker who I respected a lot as a football player, but to be honest, that respect is gone,” he said.
“I follow Gary, he comments about everything, he even said that the current policy of the UK Government reminded him of the policy of the German government in the 1930s.
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“I know about this policy, my father suffered for this policy, my grandfather, my grandmother was murdered because of the policy of the Germans.
“The only thing that is close to his is what happened on October 7. What happened, I cannot even describe.”
He went on to describe the brutal attacks that happened in Israel on October 7, before continuing: “’I’ve never heard of such things in my life, and what did you do? Silence. Nothing.
“I think you even said that Tottenham is first place in the league. That’s what was important for you. So you have a double standard.”
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Express.co.uk has contacted Lineker for comment.
The October 7 attacks, carried out by Hamas, was the deadliest attack in Israel in decades and, since then, a violent conflict has erupted.
So far, a reported 11,000 Palestinians, including what is believed to be around 4,500 children, have died.
1,400 Israelis are also thought to have died, with the majority of those deaths happening on the initial October 7 date.
BBC star Lineker has been known to cause controversy by using his social media platform to comment on a number of political matters.
Back in March, he caused quite a stir when he compared the language used in a Government asylum policy launch to Germany in the 1930s.
However, he has refrained from commenting on the ongoing situation in Israel and Gaza, instead simply promoting an episode of The Rest Is Politics podcast, where the conflict was discussed by co-hosts Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart.
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