[CF1]

But he clearly hasn't breached the policy, the example of a sports presenter commenting on politics being low risk to the BBC reputation and impartiality is explicitly given in the Editorial guidelines.

Any controversy should have been met with a statement from the BBC saying “Lineker’s views are his own and not that of the corporation, as a freelancer who presents non-news programming, he’s entitled to publish his own views on other platforms, his views aren’t representative of the BBC which is politically neutral”. It wouldn’t have shut people up, but it would have avoided this much bigger mess.

Exactly this. You're right - it wouldn't have closed down the "noise" completely, but it wouldn't have escalated to this. I despair of what Tim Davie has done. I've had my misgivings in recent times in what we're seeing of what's happening to the BBC News Channel, but BBC management this weekend has been utterly disastrous. They have, in the course of 24 hours, shattered the BBC Sport division. It is unforgivable.