Jamie Carragher suspended by Sky Sports for spitting at Manchester United fan and his teenage daughter
The former Liverpool captain issued a second apology after being stood down from Sky Sports duties following the incident on Saturday evening
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Your support makes all the difference.Jamie Carragher has been suspended by Sky Sports after spitting at a Manchester United fan and his 14-year-old daughter, with the broadcaster removing him from tonight’s live coverage of the Premier League game between Stoke City and Manchester City.
Carragher issued a second apology on Monday, having spoken to the family involved on Sunday night after he was filmed spitting out of his car when taunted by the man following United’s 2-1 victory over Liverpool.
The ex-footballer, who played for Liverpool for his entire career as well as 38 times for England, rolled down his window to confront the man, who also rolled his passenger window down next to his teenage daughter. The video – taken by the man – then shows Carragher spitting at the man’s car, before the girl says that the footballer has spat at her face.
A Sky Sports statement issued on Monday afternoon confirmed that Carragher has been stood down from his role as a Sky Sports analyst and commentator
"Sky takes this matter extremely seriously and strongly condemns Jamie’s actions, we have made that clear to him in person today and suspended him from his duties. It falls well below the standards we expect of our people.”
It is not known how long Carragher will remain suspended for, but he appeared on Sky News in an interview with Sarah Hewson to try to explain his actions.
“You can’t obviously condone that behaviour in any way, shape or form, no matter where you are, who you’re representing – obviously at Sky Sports now, my family and the most important people in this really who were probably most effected is the family involved and especially the 14-year-old daughter," Carragher said.
“[It was] a moment of madness that really is difficult for me to explain. Watching those clips back it feels almost like an out-of-body thing, that moment of madness, those four or five seconds and no matter what the circumstances you can’t understand behaviour like that, that is just unacceptable.
“But to be honest that is where again I think to myself ‘why did you react like that’ because that’s part of being a public figure at times, different things get said but you don’t react like that. It’s the only time I’ve reacted like that and it will be the only time I react like that, so again, I have no excuse and it’s devastating for the family involved and also for my own family, but that’s down to my actions that’s brought that on.”
Carragher stressed that he hoped to apologise to the family again face to face.
He said: “I called the family, obviously they were upset and disappointed last night. That is my biggest regret, there’s lots of regrets with what’s happened but certainly the biggest one is for the 14-year-old girl to be caught in the middle of my altercation with the father, and that is something that probably devastates me a little bit more than anything else really, that a young girl who wasn’t involved in anything really has now become embroiled in it."
Pushed on whether it mattered how old or what gender any victim of being spat on was, Carragher clarified: “No of course, I’m not saying that, I mean that it is a young girl who feels slightly worse. I’ve got a daughter exactly the same age and if someone had done that, it’s difficult to find the words to express what I’d say to that person if I ever bumped into them because the way that father sees his daughter, the way I see my daughter, but that is my biggest regret of course – all of it is – getting involved in that type of situation, but all I can do now is apologise as much as I can possibly can and I’ve done that with the family, hopefully they accept that, and I’d like to obviously apologise to them again."
Carragher confirmed that he has not handed in his resignation to Sky and that he will leave the decision up to them as they hold further talks. “That’s not my decision,” he added. “What I would say is there’s no doubt what I have done on Saturday after the game is disgusting, I apologise for it. I’m getting vilified for it and rightly so because if someone had done that in the game that I was commentating on [between] Manchester United and Liverpool, I’d have vilified them for the next few days, but what I would hope, not just for Sky but for the public that have known me for possibly almost 25 years in the public eye since I started playing for Liverpool, is that five seconds of madness will not take over everything I’ve done up to now.
“Some people may like me, some people may not like me even before this incident, but hopefully going forward I can show them that I don’t feel this is the real representation of me and as I said hopefully Sky or the general public will look at the 25 years – and I’ve made mistakes in those 25 years – but this, the mistake I’ve made [on Saturday] is a huge one.”
Admitting that his position both as a footballer and a television pundit means he is a role model with responsibilities, Carragher accepted that he has a duty not to act as he did on Saturday evening.
“I think footballers, people in the job that I do, a public figure, is a role model whether you like it or not and people do look up to us and look at our actions, and the world we live in now – particularly with social media – a lot of young people will have seen this clip as well,” Carragher said.
“I’d be horrified at my own children, and what I’ve done, if I did have a five or six-year-old of my own I’d feel the same. As I’ve said, it’s difficult to explain, the moment of madness – four or five seconds where I’ve lost it, basically – and I’ve made a huge mistake and I’ve apologised for that. I wish I could go back and change it, obviously that’s not the case.”
“[My children] are disappointed obviously. They’re upset.”
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