Sports News in Brief: Danish channel drops Jamie Carragher for Champions League game

Viasat maintains it will listen to the English pundit’s side of the story before taking further action

Danish TV operator Viasat has moved quickly to tell former Liverpool and England defender Jamie Carragher that his services will not be required on Tuesday night, when Manchester United host Seville in the Champions League, following the release of a video showing him spitting in the face of a young girl on Saturday.

Carragher was asked by a Manchester United fan and his 14-year-old daughter, who were driving alongside the footballer, to recall the scoreline in Manchester United’s 2-1 defeat of Liverpool that lunchtime, and despite the gentle provocation he responded by suddenly spitting at their car.

We are all human beings
However, while a spokesperson for TV3 Sport admitted to Ekstra Bladet that it “does not look good” for Carragher, it maintained that it “would never fire anyone until they’ve hear their side of the story”.

“It does not look cool. But we are all human beings. We would like to hear his version of what happened,” the spokesperson added.

Carragher had already been suspended by his main employer, Sky Sports.


Woz through to last 16 despite hiccup
Caroline Wozniacki is through to the last 16 of Indian Wells – a tournament that is generally considered one of the biggest of the year outside the grand slams. Wozniacki, who won the hardcourt tournament in 2011, edged out Belarussian world number 49 Aliaksandra Sasnovich in three sets. Wozniacki made an uncharacteristic 12 unforced errors on her way to taking the first set 6-4 and then stomach cramps threatened to derail her game-plan as Sasnovich bounced back to take the second 6-2. Wozniacki’s experience proved telling, though, as she took the final set 6-3. Next up for the Dane is Russia’s Daria Kasatkina.

Cultural climb helps to secure cross country worlds
Moesgaard Museum has played a pivotal role in landing Denmark the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus in March 2019. Organisers Dansk Atletik Forbund arranged a trial race over their proposed course, which includes traversing the roof of the museum. The brewer Mikkeller has already been confirmed as the sponsor of the event by the International Athletics Association. Unusually for Denmark perhaps, the route is very up and down. The brewer’s founder Mikkel Borg Mikkeller was among the runners who tried out the course last week. His sponsorship is connected to his founding of a Mikkeller running club in 2014.

Smoke bomb evacuates ice hockey game
A crowd of 3,500 spectators had to be evacuated when a smoke bomb was detonated at a game between Herning Blue Fox against Herlev Eagles in the quarter-finals of the Danish Cup over the weekend. The game resumed at Herning Isstadion once local police had determined it was safe for the spectators to return.