BBC Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker has defended Just Stop Oil after Wimbledon became the latest major sporting event targeted by the organisation.
They disrupted play twice, with protesters running onto the court and throwing jigsaw puzzles and confetti in first-round matches between Grigor Dimitrov and Sho Shimabukuro and Katie Boulter and Daria Saville. Just Stop Oil have also staged disruptive protests during the second Ashes Test at Lord's, the Premiership rugby final at Twickenham and the World Snooker Championship.
The environmental activist group want to "ensure the government commits to halting new fossil fuel licensing and production". And Lineker believes their cause is "more important... than slight disruption of sporting events".
Speaking after hosting an environmental panel at Wimbledon, the former footballer said: "I completely understand where they're coming from – disruptive protest is the only one that gets any publicity. I get it.
"I also understand why people get so upset with it, particularly in sport. I think what is more important is probably our existence in the future rather than slight disruption of sporting events or other things.
"You don't want things to be disrupted but at the same time they will really be disrupted with climate change. From what I've seen… splashing a bit of paint on a piece of glass where there is a painting behind, throwing jigsaw puzzles and a bit of confetti is not going to hurt anyone."
Tennis player Heather Watson, who was also part of the panel, said that players would be left fearing for their safety as a result of the protests and called for collaboration. "It was uncomfortable to watch," she said.
"I was thinking, 'If I was playing on that court I wonder how I would have felt.' You don't know what somebody is running on the court for. You fear for your safety. Let's work as a team, let's collaborate, we all want the same thing."
Another member of the panel, World Athletics president and two-time Olympic gold medallist Lord Sebastian Coe, added: "I don't for one minute dismiss the sentiments behind that [Just Stop Oil] movement and other movements. I am a libertarian, I will die in a ditch for people to express their views.
"What I would really ask is that it is done in a respectful way. Don't think of us as competitors, think of us as potential collaborators and allow the amplification that our athletes and that sport can give to this."
