Jamie Carragher suspended for rest of the season by Sky Sports after spitting towards young girl and father
Carragher was filmed spitting out of his car after a Manchester United fan taunted him following Liverpool's defeat at Old Trafford last Saturday
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Jamie Carragher has been suspended by Sky Sports for the rest of the season after he was caught spitting in the direction of a Manchester United fan, who was taunting him about the club’s victory over Liverpool last weekend, as well as his 14-year-old daughter while driving away from Old Trafford.
A Sky Sports spokesman issued a statement on Wednesday that read: ”Following an internal review, Sky has suspended Jamie Carragher for the remainder of the football season.
“Jamie has taken full responsibility for what has happened and we will ensure he gets the help he needs to guarantee something like this never happens again.
“Before the start of the next season we will sit down with Jamie to discuss whether he is ready to return to his role.”
Carragher earlier posted a message on Twitter to call on social media trolls to stop abusing the man who filmed the video while driving a car that contained his 14-year-old daughter in the passenger seat, with his identity being revealed on Tuesday.
"I’ve made a big mistake & accept full responsibility," Carragher wrote. "I am the only person to blame for this sorry situation, so please leave the family alone."
Greater Manchester Police have contacted the man, who has been named by The Mirror as Andy Hughes, and he has been spoken to by authorities who are looking into the incident, which took place shortly after Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford that Carragher was commentating on for Sky Sports. Greater Manchester Police also confirmed that they had not received any formal complaint, but contacted Mr Hughes after the video of the incident was widely distributed on social media and by numerous news outlets.
Mr Hughes decided to publicly speak out after online trolls identified him on Tuesday and targeted him with death threats and abuse that made him feel “under siege”, with the North Wales resident pleading for the messages to stop for the sake of his family.
“We have been feeling under siege. It has been really worrying,” Mr Hughes told The Mirror.
“I have received threats, death threats and all kinds of abuse, and I don’t know how to deal with it. I worry for my daughter’s safety, I really do.”
Carragher has repeatedly apologised for his actions after claiming he “lost it” and had “four or five seconds of madness”. After being taunted by Mr Hughes – who shouted “two-one Jamie, two-one!” at him following Liverpool’s defeat, Carragher put down his car window and spat at him and his teenage daughter, who was sitting in the passenger seat with the window down.
Police have not contacted Carragher, but he said that he would assist them if they wanted to.
"I'm in no position to question or disagree if someone wants to have a pop or the police want to speak to me. I've done a bad thing and have to accept whatever comes my way,” he said.
"I'm upset for them, my family and everyone involved. It's been something we all could have done without but all I can do now is apologise."
He added to Sky News: “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 affected is the family involved and especially the 14-year-old daughter.
“[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.”
Sky Sports suspended Carragher on Monday ahead of his planned appearance at the Premier League match between Stoke City and Manchester City, and said in a statement: “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.”
The move lead to Sky Sports having to cut short their Monday Night Football programme by half an hour to a 19:30 start, with regular presenters David Jones and Gary Neville broadcasting live from the Bet365 Stadium rather than their London studio.
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