Sky Sports Suspends Pundit Carragher
Jamie Carragher has been placed on suspension from his £1million-a-year Sky Sports job until the end of the season after he admitted to have spat at a family from his car.
The football analyst will be off the tv show with Sky until at least May as it was revealed that police are planning to question him for the mess he got himself into.
Carragher’s role will be reviewed before the start of the next football season, which begins in August.
Earlier today, Carragher called for the father who filmed him spitting out of his car to be left alone after he claiming to have received ‘death threats’.
The TV pundit tweeted his support for Andy Hughes, adding that he was the ‘only person to blame’ for the incident.
A statement from Sky said: ‘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.’
It comes as police prepare to question Carragher after he was filmed spitting at Mr Hughe’s 14-year-old daughter.
Should Carragher, 40, be charged with common assault for spitting in the girl’s face, he could potentially face a six-month jail sentence or a hefty fine.
Mr Hughes, a Manch fan, used his phone to record the shameful incident that has left Carragher clinging on to his £1million-a-year Sky Sports job.
This morning, Carragher tweeted: ‘I’ve made a big mistake and accept full responsibility.
‘I am the only person to blame for this sorry situation, so please leave the family alone.’
Mr Hughes, from Colwyn Bay, north Wales, shouted: ‘2-1, 2-1, unlucky Jamie lad, 2-1 lad’ from his open car window after spotting the TV presenter in traffic following Liverpool’s loss to Manchester United on Saturday.
He then watched as former Liverpool star Carragher launch a mouthful of spit, which hit his 14-year-old daughter sat in the car.
Mr Hughes – who says that he ‘hates Scousers’ on his Instagram account – filmed the encounter with the TV presenter on his mobile phone.
In the footage his daughter can be heard saying: ‘He spat on me.’ Mr Hughes asks her: ‘Where did it hit you?’ The schoolgirl replies: ‘On my face.’
His daughter then burst into tears, Mr Hughes claims. The girl’s 38-year-old mother Sarah was also in the car.
It is now thought that Mr Hughes could himself face a £200 fine and six penalty points for using his mobile phone to record Carragher while at the wheel of his car.
He has pleaded with Sky Sports not to axe the Liverpool legend from his lucrative pundit role as he revealed that the saga had led to death threats on social media.
He told The Mirror ‘We have been feeling under siege. It has been really worrying.
‘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, who was born Bootle, Merseyside, and is worth £15 million, has since phoned Hughes to apologise for spitting at his daughter in a ‘moment of madness’.
Mr Hughes has spoken to by police as enquiries are ongoing into the incident.
He and his wife have urged Sky Sports not to sack the former Liverpool defender over the altercation.
He said: ‘We don’t want him to lose his job. It is not about that. We wanted an apology and explanation. He seems contrite. Everyone makes mistakes, we are all human.’
Mrs Hughes added: ‘He did seem extremely sorry.’
BBC presenter Jeremy Vine said in a tweet that the person filming Carragher should be jailed for using a mobile at the wheel.
The Radio 2 host hit out at Carragher, branding his actions ‘disgusting’ and ‘certainly sackable’ but implied that using a phone on the motorway was worse as the man should go ‘straight to jail’.
He wrote: ‘Spitting: disgusting, possibly criminal, certainly sackable.
‘Filming on a mobile while driving a car with a child in the back, on a motorway, paying no attention whatsoever to the road: straight to jail.’
Carragher, who claimed Mr Hughes goaded him, has been suspended by Sky Sports and he has been axed by Danish channel TV3 Sport.
However he said he had apologised to the family and would apologise again.
He told Sky News: ‘I called the family obviously they were upset and disappointed last night.
‘I spoke to the 14-year-old girl. That was my biggest regret.
‘There’s lots of regrets for what has happened but certainly the biggest one is for the 14-year-old girl to be caught in the middle of my altercation with her father.
He added: ‘It’s a poor message of not just about being in the game, it’s a poor message for everyone out there – man, woman or children. It’s the lowest of the low.
‘All I can do now is obviously speak to you and speak to the family again and apologise as much as I can.
‘I am being vilified and rightly so because if someone in that game had done that – I was commentating on the Manchester United vs Liverpool game – I would have to vilify them for the next few days.
‘It’s difficult to explain, the moment of madness, it was four of five seconds. I lost it and I made a huge mistake – I wish I could go back.
‘I have never done it before and I will never do it again, I can just try and go back to the person that I am.’
Speaking about his future, he added: ‘I have not offered that (my resignation), I am working out the best way to go forward.’
