Premier League pundit stood down after being filmed spitting at rival fan’s 14yo daughter (VIDEO)
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher’s future is in question after footage emerged of him spitting at a rival fan’s daughter after being goaded by her father. It followed Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat to Manchester United on Saturday.
Carragher, who made over 500 appearances at the heart of Liverpool’s defense but never actually won the Premier League, was driving from United’s Old Trafford stadium where he had been providing expert commentary, when he was goaded by the fan.
Jamie Carragher spits at football fan and his 14-year-old daughter in shocking video following Liverpool's defeat to Manchester United pic.twitter.com/xV6beCX1s0
— YNFA (@ynfafootball) March 11, 2018
The fan’s 14-year-old daughter, sitting in the passenger seat of the car, can be heard begging her father to stop the taunts, which he filmed on his mobile phone.
Ignoring his daughter’s pleas, the fan then shouts out the 2-1 scoreline, which prompts Carragher to wind down the window of his car before expectorating. The resulting spit struck the young girl.
In the footage, the girl can be heard saying: “He spat on me.” The dad asks her: “Where did it hit you?” She replies: “On my face.”
Totally out of order & Ive apologised personally to all the family this evening. I was goaded 3/4 times along the motorway while being filmed & lost my rag. No excuse apologies. https://t.co/ofrNfiwhYH
— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) March 11, 2018
Jamie Carragher was due to be at Old Trafford for United vs Sevilla tomorrow night but has been dropped for the game by TV3 Sport.
— Samuel Luckhurst (@samuelluckhurst) March 12, 2018
I’ve known Jamie Carragher for 30 years and I can tell you now that incident is completely out of character for him,fair play for phoning the guy and his daughter up and apologising,he’s only human at the end of day and the frustration has got the better of him.
— David Thompson (@77thomo) March 12, 2018
Carragher, 40, was quick to apologize to the girl, describing his behavior an “inexcusable” in a tweet that quoted an article condemning his action as “shocking.”
“Totally out of order & I’ve apologised personally to all the family this evening. I was goaded 3/4 times along the motorway while being filmed & lost my rag. No excuse apologies,” Carragher tweeted.
According to the Mirror, Carragher phoned the girl and her father on Sunday night and said: “I just want to apologise and I hope you are OK.” The youngster apparently told him: “OK, thanks for apologising.”
The girl’s 38-year-old mum expressed her anger at Carragher, who has a daughter of his own, for spitting on the girl, calling it “the lowest of the low.”
“I was extremely angry and disappointed that he could even bring himself to do something like that. Looking at her, you know she is a child,” she said.
“What did she do wrong? She did not do anything wrong. Spitting at someone is the lowest of the low. It is disgusting. In all the years I’ve watched football, isn’t it all about banter?”
Carragher, who won two FA Cups and the 2005 Champions League with Liverpool, was stood down from reporting duties on Sky Sports’ coverage of Monday evening’s game between Stoke and Manchester City as a result of the incident.
On Monday, Carragher was suspended by Sky after crunch talks in London. The broadcaster said in a statement it "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.”
A Danish television channel has also pulled Carragher from its coverage of Manchester United's Champions League game against Sevilla at Old Trafford on Tuesday.
