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Sky Sports suspend Jamie Carragher after spitting incident

6 years ago
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On Monday afternoon, Sky Sports have confirmed that Jamie Carragher is ‘suspended from his duties’ for an unspecified period.

In a statement, they said his spitting incident (read below) ‘falls well below the standards we expect of our people’.

Jamie Carragher was due to appear tonight on ‘Monday Night Football’ but that will be now the first scheduled broadcast he will miss.

Sky Sports statement on Jamie Carragher:

“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.”

Sky News Newsdesk:

“Sky News understands former England footballer Jamie Carragher will not appear on ‘Monday Night Football’ on Sky Sports this evening after he was caught on video spitting at a family in their car following Liverpool’s defeat to Manchester United on Saturday.”

The Mag – Earlier Today (Monday 12 March 2018):

A pretty amazing story breaking on Monday morning concerning Jamie Carragher.

After working for Sky Sports at Old Trafford on Saturday, he was driving away from the ground after watching Liverpool lose 2-1.

Stuck in traffic, a Manchester United fan was repeatedly goading the former Liverpool player about the result, both with their windows.

Pretty amazing that after a whole playing career where he would have had plenty provocation off the pitch, then the same now he is an outspoken pundit for Sky Sports, that he retaliated to the provocation by spitting at the Man Utd supporter in the other car.

To put the icing on the cake, the Man U fan was filming the whole thing AND he (the fan) had his 14 year old daughter in the car, with Jamie Carragher allegedly hitting her with his spitting.

Having watched the footage, the actions of the Manchester United fan are very embarrassing, especially when he has his daughter in the car and is filming whilst driving, but the actions of Jamie Carragher are just unbelievable.

However, at least one thing he can say, is that nobody can accuse him of being a hypocrite.

Just over three years ago, Newcastle lost in the last minute 1-0 to Man Utd at St James Park – Wednesday 4 March 2015.

However, what really made the headlines was the fact that Papiss Cisse and Jonny Evans were both caught on camera spitting at each other (read below). Both were then eventually banned, though Evans added extra humiliation on himself by repeatedly lying about having done it, until the evidence was so overwhelming that he had no option but to change his story.

Interestingly, writing in The Mail at the time, Jamie Carragher said (read below) that the ban for Cisse in particular was a ‘little excessive’ and talks about the spitting as being ‘a moment of madness’.

Carragher talked about over the top tackles as being far worse but I think the issue for most people, though clearly not Jamie Carragher, is that whatever the provocation, the last thing you would think about doing is spitting at another human being. With so much to lose with his pundit career, it is amazing that Jamie Carragher has done this, maybe suggesting he has some pretty deep anger management issues, if a defeat for Liverpool to Man U and some idiot taunting him, leads to this.

Jamie Carragher writing in The Mail – 6 March 2015:

The issue of spitting, sadly, has emerged again this week with Jonny Evans and Papiss Cisse both being condemned.

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!

I was spat at once in my career. It came during a UEFA Cup game against Celta Vigo in 1998 and the player in question was a Russian midfielder called Aleksander Mostovoi. I was shocked more than angry when he did it because I couldn’t believe what had happened.

Cisse has admitted being in the wrong and hit with a seven-game ban. I know it is a disgusting thing to do but I do think that punishment seems a little excessive, particularly if you compare it to an over-the-top tackle that would ‘only’ get three games.

For Evans, the incident doesn’t look good at all. It would have been easy enough for him to spit well away from Cisse.

One final thing: all those people who have said about Evans ‘he’s not that type of lad’. Who is then?

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 not.

The Mag – 7 March 2015:

Newcastle United have just released an official statement (read below) which confirms that both Papiss Cisse and Jonny Evans have been banned after the spitting incident on Wednesday night.

Jonny Evans was cleared of spitting at Emmanuel Riviere in a separate incident but hasn’t been able to wriggle out of the moment when he spat at Papiss Cisse.

The Newcastle striker earned a bit of credit in this shameful episode by holding his hands up straight away.

However, Jonny Evans continued to lie about his involvement, despite the damning TV footage, an extra embarrassing episode for both the player and his club.

As expected, Jonny Evans has picked up a six match ban, with Cisse getting an extra one due to his earlier suspension for elbowing a player in the Everton match earlier this season.

Newcastle fans had already accepted they were going to be without their only out and out striker for all but the last three matches of this season, the only disappointment being that Jonny Evans and his club weren’t given extra punishment for trying to lie their way out of trouble.

Newcastle United official Statement

FA Confirm Cisse Suspension

Newcastle United’s Papiss Cisse and Manchester United’s Jonny Evans will serve suspensions of seven-matches and six-matches respectively with immediate effect following their game on Wednesday 4 March 2015.

Both players were charged in relation to an alleged breach of FA Rule E1[a] in that in or around the 38th minute of the fixture they spat at each other.

Mr Cisse accepted the charge and his suspension consists of six matches, which is the standard penalty for this offence, with an additional one match as he has previously accepted a violent conduct charge this season.

Mr Evans denied the charge but it was found proven following an Independent Regulatory Commission hearing on Friday [6 March 2015], resulting in a six-match suspension.

The incidents were not seen by the match officials but caught on video.

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