Football pundit Jamie Carragher has been suspended by Sky Sports and his career with the broadcaster is uncertain after he was filmed spitting in the direction of a 14-year-old girl.
The former Liverpool and England defender was due to appear on Monday Night Football from Stoke tonight, but has been suspended for at least the next week following a meeting with bosses in London. Carragher was filmed spitting at another car after its driver had goaded him about Liverpool’s defeat by Manchester United on Saturday.
A statement from the broadcaster read: “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.”
Carragher said on Sky News: “It’s difficult to explain. It was a moment of madness, four or five seconds, where I’ve lost it. My biggest regret is for the 14-year-old girl to be caught in the middle of it.
“That devastates me more than anything. I’ve got a daughter exactly the same age and I can’t say how I’d react if someone did that to her.”
The Danish broadcaster TV3 has also dropped Carragher from their coverage of Manchester United v Sevilla in the Champions League on Tuesday. Peter Nørrelund, head of sport at TV3 Sport, said: “It would have been like sending him into a lion’s den. I have seen the video and it certainly doesn’t look good.
“It is a big story in England and I wouldn’t have thought that sending him to Old Trafford would have been a good idea. I don’t know what will happen [long-term]. It is not good behaviour but we are all just human beings.
“We want to hear from him what happened. That is the same for all employees – whether it is the receptionist or Jamie Carragher – we are not going to sanction someone until we’ve heard from them what happened.”
Carragher has been a pundit for Sky since retiring from playing in 2013.
