Jamie Carragher has been suspended by Sky after he was filmed spitting at a football fan's car after being heckled.

Speaking to Sky News, the ex-Liverpool defender called it "a moment of madness".

Carragher spits at fans after being heckled

Carragher, who said his behaviour "cannot be condoned", personally called the family on Sunday to apologise and said his "biggest regret was that a young girl was caught up in the middle of the altercation".

When shown the mobile phone footage, which was shot following Liverpool's defeat to Manchester United on Saturday, he said it "felt like an out of body experience - a moment of madness for four or five seconds".

The football analyst, who has a daughter the same age as the girl who was caught up in the incident, says that he thinks "a young girl would feel worse" in such a situation and said he "would find it hard to know what he would say or how he would react" if such a thing had happened to his own daughter.


Admitting "what I've done is disgusting", he said "if someone had done what I had done on the pitch I would vilify them".

Image: Ex-footballer Jamie Carragher moments before spitting

In the video, which was filmed after Carragher's former club lost 2-1 at Old Trafford and obtained by the Daily Mirror, the 40-year-old pundit can be seen driving his black SUV as a Manchester United fan spots him and beeps his horn.

The car driver says: "There's Jamie's Carragher there, look," before shouting "2-1, 2-1, unlucky Jamie lad, 2-1 lad."

At that point Carragher, who has wound down his window, spits towards the car.

The 14-year-old daughter of the Manchester United fan, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car, can be heard saying she was hit in the face by the spit.

When asked on Sky News if he felt he deserved his privileged position as the face of football, he said he did not believe the incident "represented the real me", saying: "I have brought shame on the name of football. I was a role model, people looked to me."

He went on: "I've made mistakes in my 25 year career, but this is the worst one."

When he was asked what his children thought of his behaviour, Carragher became visibly upset, welling up with tears.

Image: Sky has now suspended the football pundit from his duties

He went on to say: "Hopefully I can get the chance to meet face-to-face with the family, and apologise to them again."

A statement from Sky Sports said: "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."

Acknowledging the impact of his actions, Callagher said: "The world that we live in now, with social media, a lot of people will have seen this clip. It's the lowest of the low, and I'll never do it again."

Former Wimbledon player Vinnie Jones commented on the incident saying: "Spitting at 14-year-olds through a window? He is presenting on the TV. For Christ's sake, he is supposed to be one of the top men. You can't condone that whatsoever. It is filth, it is absolute filth."

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

Former Liverpool footballer David Thompson defended Carragher on Twitter, writing: "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."

Former Manchester City footballer Joey Barton called the act "absolute madness". He wrote: "You just can't do that in any fashion. If Jamie is that annoyed he should just keep his window up, or just tell him to mind his own business."