MK Dons’ Samir Carruthers apologises for Cheltenham incident

The MK Dons footballer Samir Carruthers has apologised for his behaviour at the Cheltenham Festival and said he had "let the club down massively".

Carruthers told Sky Sports he had been disciplined by his club, adding: “I don’t want to be known as idiot who urinated in a pint glass. I feel so embarrassed.”

Carruthers was pictured relieving himself into the glass at the Festival on Tuesday leading Cheltenham racecourse to cancel a group booking involving the midfielder. One of his group, the Northampton Town forward James Collins, was seen pouring the contents of a glass over the balcony.

“I just want to say I’m sorry to everyone, my family, the club, chairman, the gaffer. I’ve not been raised up to do something like that and I’ve let everyone down’” he said.

“I’ve let the community down and I’ve let Milton Keynes down and I have to take the criticism that comes with it. It’s not something that should be laughed about. It’s not an example I should be giving to kids either.

“I’m meant to be a role model and I have to live by my actions now and I really am hurt by what I’ve done. It was a silly mistake and I just have to take everything that comes with it.”

Carruthers said he had been disciplined by the club following a meeting with the chairman Pete Winkelman and manager Karl Robinson. "They're obviously very let down and I'm being disciplined for it," Carruthers added.

“They had faith in me not to do something like that so I feel like I’ve met them down massively. But it’s not just them, I’ve let down the whole team, my team-mates, everyone. And I’m really sorry to Cheltenham as well because they let me in and stuff and I obviously embarrassed everyone.”

Bristol City's Luke Ayling and Northampton Town's Collins were also pictured laughing and joking about the incident. A tweet from the course said: "In regards to images of inappropriate behaviour from yesterday, we have cancelled their booking for today."

Northampton have also launched an investigation into the conduct of their forward Collins, who is on loan from Shrewsbury Town. A statement from the League Two leaders said: “As a club we take any such claims extremely seriously, and we expect the highest standards of behaviour at all times.

“We are unable to comment further until this investigation has been completed.” Collins’s parent club Shrewsbury have confirmed they will also be investigating the incident.

Bristol City have also responded with regards to Ayling. While there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing from the 24-year-old, the Championship club said in a statement: “We are aware of the disappointing images from the Cheltenham Festival that have been printed in various national newspapers this morning.

“We will be speaking to the players concerned and will take appropriate action where necessary.”

Gloucestershire Police called it “a disgusting and thoughtless act” but said no further action would be taken. “We have not received any complaints relating to this incident and believe the action taken by the racecourse is appropriate and justifiable.”

The racecourse said the players’ behaviour “was unacceptable in general, let alone at the Cheltenham Festival” and that no more bookings would be accepted from Unique Sports Management, the management company which hired the box where the players were pictured.

USM had booked a table in a hospitality marquee for racing at Cheltenham on Wednesday, but it was cancelled by the course on Tuesday evening.

"We felt that we should take the necessary action and prevent them from taking the booking that they had with us for today," Sophia Dale, Cheltenham's communications manager, said on Wednesday. "We emailed them last night and told them that they wouldn't be welcome to attend."

“Incidents like this are almost unheard of,” Dale said. “We had nearly 68,000 people here yesterday and that was a party of 20 to 30 people, and probably only two or three that were behaving inappropriately.

“The hospitality team were aware of it because it had been reported by stewards in the area. They weren’t in a box [ON WEDNESDAY], they were in a hospitality facility and we just removed the table. We felt that it was important to show that that sort of behaviour is unacceptable in general, let alone at the Cheltenham Festival.”

Unique Sports Management is run by Will Salthouse, a football agent who owns a share in the sprinter Moviesta with Harry Redknapp, the former Tottenham and West Ham manager. Moviesta won a Group Three race in Ireland last August, and finished third in the Group One Prix de l’Abbaye at Longchamp in October 2014.

Unique Sports Management did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

(Guardian service)