Rio Ferdinand jokes that his message saw Alan Shearer walk away from Match of the Day

Rio Ferdinand has jokingly claimed that it was his voicenote sent to Alan Shearer that lead to the Geordie joining Ian Wright in refusing to appear on Match of the Day after Gary Lineker was temporarily axed.

After Lineker was removed from hosting last Saturday’s football highlights show on the BBC because of a recent tweet criticising the UK Government, co-host Wright decided that he wouldn’t be appearing either.

Newcastle legend Shearer then followed suit, joining his colleague in a stand of solidarity before other BBC Sport pundits and commentators made similar decisions.

Speaking on his Vibe with Five Youtube channel, Ferdinand revealed the messages he sent to Shearer on Friday evening as news broke of the BBC’s decision. 

‘Alan Shearer I have a voicenote, I’ll play the voicenote I left him. This is before he made his decision so I’m taking full credit for pushing him into making the decision to join [Ian Wright] Wrighty and [Gary] Lineker, said Ferdinand.

Rio Ferdinand (right) explained how he sent Alan Shearer (left) a voice recording after Gary Lineker was temporarily removed from hosting Match of the Day

Lineker was cut from hosting Match of the Day at the weekend but was reinstated to his role on Monday

‘I’ve just seen a tweet from Wrighty. He just said listen, I’ve told the BBC that I’m out this weekend, it’s not for me. Solidarity with Big Links.

‘What the f*** is big Al gonna do? What’s Shearer gonna do? Where are you, where are ya?!’

‘And after that, he made the statement that he wasn’t gonna we’re gonna be on Match of the Day,’ he added. ‘So obviously it was down to [me].’

The well-connected player-turned-pundit also explained how he reached out to Lineker upon hearing the news that he wouldn’t be featuring on the latest edition of the iconic football show.

Ferdinand was employed by the BBC as part of their 2022 Qatar World Cup coverage and worked alongside the previously mentioned broadcasters in the Middle East.

He explained how everything ‘went nuts’ in his Whatsapp chats as news of Lineker’s departure came to light but admitted as chaos ensued, the iconic presenter remained ‘calm, cool, and collected’. 

‘I text Gary Lineker the day it came out. Everyone’s Whatsapp group was like ours, it went nuts!,’ added Ferdinand.

Ferdinand (right) has previously worked alongside Shearer (middle left) and Lineker (left) for the BBC

Lineker will be back on BBC television for the next episode of Match of the Day on Saturday

‘My Mrs was going what the hell’s going on. I said ‘don’t talk to me for a minute, I have to go through the last hundred text messages that have popped through’

‘It was mad, I text Gary saying ‘how are we doing, how’s everything’ knowing it was a s***storm going crazy in the media.

‘He was just Gary as Gary always is, calm, cool, collected. Brushed it off.

‘It is a crazy situation I think. My generation and generations before me, and this generation as well, incidents happen and these situations keep rearing their head’ he said.