Latest news with #BrianGlanville
Times
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Times
Gary Lineker ‘not welcome' to speak at Jewish football writer's memorial
Gary Lineker may not attend a memorial for his football writer friend after his son said the Match of the Day presenter would not be welcome to speak at the service. Mark Glanville, the son of Brian Glanville, an award-winning football correspondent for The Sunday Times who died last month aged 93, said Lineker was 'really crossing a line', after he shared a post that contained an antisemitic trope. Glanville's sister Jo had suggested Lineker speak at the memorial service at St Bride's Church on Fleet Street because the pair had been friends since the early days of Lineker's football career, The Mail on Sunday reported. Brian Glanville saw Israel 'as a country that was Jewish and where Jews could thrive as Jews and be safe', his son says GERRY PENNY • Brian Glanville obituary: influential football writer Glanville said: 'I can't have somebody coming to speak at my dad's memorial service who, though not antisemitic, is someone who is giving ammunition to people who are antisemites. Once you share a picture of a rat which is associated with Nazis, you really are crossing a line.' The post Lineker shared showed a video about Zionism from the Palestine Lobby campaign group and included a picture of a rat, an insult used in Nazi Germany to characterise Jews. Lineker, 64, subsequently deleted the post and said he apologised 'unreservedly'. He said he was not antisemitic and that he would 'never, ever have shared' the post if he had seen the picture, which he said had 'awful connotations'. Glanville said his father, who was Jewish, would not have wanted Lineker to speak at the service despite his admiration for him. He said that his father had been deeply affected by the Holocaust and suffered antisemitic abuse while at school. 'He saw Israel, after all the utter horror, like so many Jews, as a country that was Jewish and where Jews could thrive as Jews and be safe,' he said. 'We felt that for a man of such stature, Dad deserved a proper memorial service and my sister suggested inviting Gary Lineker to speak, saying that he had really loved Dad's work. But I said that while this was undoubtedly the case, loads of other people were admirers of Dad's work as well.' It is not clear whether Lineker had planned to attend or speak at the memorial service. Lineker's agent was contacted for comment. Lineker is a vocal advocate for the rights of Palestinians and has previously said that he is not antisemitic. • Martin Samuel: Lineker's tearful farewell was the best of him The fallout over his social media post led him to leave the BBC earlier than planned. The broadcaster said in a statement that he would no longer be part of its coverage of the 2026 World Cup or next season's FA Cup coverage. Lineker said at the time that he would 'never consciously repost anything antisemitic — it goes against everything I stand for. However, I recognise the error and upset that I caused and reiterate how sorry I am. Stepping back now feels like the responsible course of action.' Palestine Lobby says it calls for an 'end to the occupation, a return of our people to their homeland and a free Palestine'. The post that Lineker shared on Instagram included a cartoon picture of a rat and was titled: 'Zionism explained in two minutes.'
Daily Mail
07-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Jewish football writer's son: I'll not let Gary Lineker anywhere near Dad's memorial after antisemitic rat emoji post
Gary Lineker will be barred from paying tribute at a memorial service for a friend, football writer Brian Glanville, because of his attacks on Israel. Celebrated reporter Glanville, who died aged 93, was Jewish and his son Mark said: 'I am not having Lineker anywhere near Dad's memorial.' Mark's sister Jo had suggested asking Lineker to speak at a service at St Bride's Church in Fleet Street as the family knew he had been friends with Glanville since his early days at Leicester. But Lineker, 64, has been forced to leave his Match Of The Day role early after sharing an anti-Zionism post that had an illustration of a rat, which is how the Nazis characterised Jews. Mark said: 'I can't have somebody coming to speak at my Dad's memorial service who, though not anti-Semitic, is someone who is giving ammunition to people who are anti-Semites. 'Once you share a picture of a rat which is associated with Nazis, you really are crossing a line.' He added that Glanville, who died last month after suffering from Parkinson's Disease, would not have wanted Lineker to speak, despite his admiration for him as a player and Match Of The Day host. He said the horrors of the Holocaust deeply affected Glanville, who was born in 1931 and suffered anti-Semitic abuse at fee-paying Charterhouse School. Mark said: 'Dad was passionate about Israel. He was a schoolboy during the Second World War but he was aware of what happened. 'He saw Israel, after all the utter horror, like so many Jews, as a country that was Jewish and where Jews could thrive as Jews and be safe. 'I do not think Lineker is an anti-Semite. But he does single out almost exclusively Israel, as so many people do, with the type of criticism that gives no context of what happened on October 7 and what has triggered it all. 'As he is such a major public figure, he is lending a lot of fuel to people who have a very different agenda and who really don't just hate Israel, but also detest Jews. 'I believe Lineker really cares about issues but I wish he would talk about what is going on in Syria, in Sudan and with women in Afghanistan.' Glanville was an award-winning football correspondent for The Sunday Times for 30 years and wrote several novels. Mark said: 'We felt that for a man of such stature, Dad deserved a proper memorial service and my sister suggested inviting Gary Lineker to speak, saying that he had really loved Dad's work. 'But I said that while this was undoubtedly the case, loads of other people were admirers of Dad's work as well. I then said there was no way Lineker was coming anywhere near it. 'She was very understanding as I explained that in my view Lineker was an exceptionally talented footballer and that is where it should have stayed.' In 2007, recalling his most memorable footballing moments, Glanville cited the 1992 Euros tournament when England manager Graham Taylor 'inexplicably' substituted Lineker in a crucial match with Sweden. 'And England lost,' added Glanville in his trademark disdain, lamenting Taylor's foolish decision and supporting Lineker, playing his last match for England.
The Guardian
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Letter: Brian Glanville obituary
Brian Glanville was an enthusiast at every level of football, including the lowest. About 50 years ago I played one season for the Foul team, Foul being the Private Eye of football magazines. Glanville had a team called Chelsea Casuals, for which he appeared as a full-back, at this stage long on experience and still as keen as mustard but with skill, fitness and other useful quantities in short supply. When we played the Casuals he was given the run-around early on by Foul's young and unexpectedly decent winger, at which point he discovered an injury and limped off. He then stationed himself behind the Casuals' goal, from where he displayed his full critical repertoire at the expense of the inadequate efforts of our forwards, of which I was one. I still remember a particularly dismal miss that was greeted with unbridled incredulity. At least I could boast of having once being commented on by Mr Glanville.
Straits Times
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
In praise of Brian Glanville and those who taught us to love sport
Sportswriters have heroes, too, and some of them are fellow scribes who write about flawed heroes. PHOTO: REUTERS Every World Cup it was tugged from the bookshelf, a coffee stain on one page, pen markings on another, a book as dishevelled as an old companion. Into its learned chapters we dived and invariably emerged sounding smarter. The man who wrote The Story of The World Cup (published 1993) was born a year after the first Cup in 1930. Once it was impossible to know football and not him. Now Brian Glanville, the writer, is gone, up there in some celestial field, keeping notes on Maradona's cunning. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Spectator
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Spectator
Great football writers are different
Brian Glanville, who died this week at the age of 93, was a unique voice in the crowded and often hysterical field of football writing and a uniquely important one. His historical reach was unparalleled. He published his first book (a ghosted autobiography of Arenal striker Cliff Bastin) at the age of 16 and attended 13 World Cups, starting with the 1958 tournament in Sweden. His lean, elegant, novelistic style, informed by his parallel career as a fiction writer, could be found nowhere else in the UK. As Patrick Barclay put it, 'most football writers fall into two categories: those who have been influenced by Brian Glanville and those who should have been'. Glanville was simply different. For one thing, he was, to not put too fine a point on it, a 'toff'. In an industry dominated by tough, plain-speaking and working-class journalists, that stuck out like a top hat at a miner's gala. This was important for me, as a rather serious and sensitive (opera loving!) middle class teenager in the gritty urban environment of the west of Scotland. Football culture, dominated by Celtic and Rangers, tended to be on the rough side and it was tempting to head to the genteel environs of the cricket or rugby club. Perhaps
