Jamie Carragher will hold talks about his future with Sky after being caught on camera spitting at a teenage girl from his car.
The former Liverpool defender had been covering Saturday lunchtime’s match for Sky between his old club and Manchester United at Old Trafford and was driving home alone when the incident occurred.
Carragher was being filmed by the driver, the girl’s father, who told the Daily Mirror he was ‘having a bit of banter’ after the game, which had ended with United winning 2-1.
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher has been filmed spitting at a teenage schoolgirl
The former Liverpool defender apologised on Twitter after video footage emerged
But in a moment of madness, the scene turned ugly and Carragher inexplicably spat towards the car in which the young girl was being driven, with saliva hitting her in the face, causing her to cry.
She said: ‘I have never been spat at by anyone before. I thought, “Why has he done that?”. I thought I had done something wrong.’
The 40-year-old contacted the girl’s family on Saturday and apologised profusely for the incident that he told Sportsmail was ‘totally out of order and unacceptable’ and recognised the shame it has brought on him.
He did not attempt to defend himself but could not understand why the driver had made three or four attempts to film him.
Carragher is expected to front Sky’s Monday Night Football coverage of Manchester City’s game at Stoke City on Monday night. He has been synonymous with this programme since he retired in 2013 and has been praised for his work, earning a salary thought to be in excess of £1million.
This incident, however, has been viewed dimly by the broadcaster’s hierarchy and they will speak to him over the next 24 hours to hear his views.
A Sky spokesman said: ‘It is unacceptable behaviour and we will be addressing it with Jamie.’
Carragher had been covering Saturday’s match between Liverpool and Manchester United
The ex-Liverpool defender (left) has become synonymous with Sky’s football coverage
Carragher issued a tweet saying: ‘Totally out of order and 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.’
The video was condemned when it was published.
It begins with the man who is driving beeping his horn at Carragher. He winds down the front window of the passenger side of his car and shouts: ‘2-1 Jamie lad, 2-1!’
Carragher winds down his own window and says ‘Alright lad’. He then spits towards the car.
At first the driver is unaware of what has happened and laughs until the girl says: ‘He spat at me.’
The driver then says: ‘How? Oooh. Nice. Jamie Carragher spat at my daughter. Nice, very nice, Jamie Carragher!’
The clip ends with girl, who is clearly upset, saying to her father: ‘Will you stop it now.’
Carragher is highly respected for his punditry and believed to earn in excess of £1million
Carragher will hold talks about his future with Sky after the video emerged on Sunday
When Carragher was a Sportsmail columnist, he wrote a column in March 2015 following an incident in a match between Newcastle and Manchester United at St James’ Park when Papiss Cisse and Jonny Evans spat at each other.
He did not attempt to make light of the disgusting nature of the exchange that led to both players being banned by the Football Association but explained that a leg-breaking tackle was regarded as worse by footballers.
Carragher wrote: ‘As usual, there have been a number of people who have said, “It is the worst thing that can happen on a pitch”. It is vile but let me assure you now — I would have preferred Lucas Neill to have spat at me the day he broke my leg in September 2003!
‘One final thing: all those people who have said about Evans, “he’s not that type of lad”. Who is then?
Carragher was spat at during his playing career by Aleksandr Mostovoi (left) in 1998
‘Is there are a list somewhere of names who are “that type”? It is a stupid thing to say. It’s not about his character. It’s about whether he had a moment of madness, deliberately or otherwise.
‘I was spat at once during my career. It came during a UEFA Cup game against Celta Vigo in 1998 and the player in question was a Russian midfielder called Aleksandr Mostovoi.
‘I was shocked more than angry when he did it because I couldn’t believe what had happened.’