Former Bundesliga referee Manuel Gräfe is appealing

Former Bundesliga referee Manuel Gräfe is appealing against the DFB in the trial. This was confirmed by his law firm “Baum, Reiter & Collegen” a good six weeks after the judgment of the Frankfurt district court SID-Request, previously had the table football already reported about it.

At the end of January, Gräfe was awarded compensation of EUR 48,500 for age discrimination, but he was denied the originally requested compensation of EUR 194,905 due to lost income. In addition, the 49-year-old had to bear the costs of the proceedings.

Under the direction of judge Wilhelm Wolf, the chamber saw it as proven that age “did not play a completely unimportant role” in the disregard of the Berliner for the list of referees for the 2021/22 season. However, she did not see any reason for damages, because Gräfe had “no guarantee of a certain number of missions” even if she had referred to the list. “The amount is in reasonable proportion to the damage suffered,” Judge Wolf said at the time.

The court was unable to adequately explain “why Manuel Graefe should not have continued the whistle even without this age-related discrimination, although he was widely regarded in public as the best arbitrator in terms of expertise,” his law firm explained the appeal: “From the point of view of the lawyers, he is consequently In addition to the loss of arbitration, which is not legally enforceable, significant financial damage has also occurred and he is to be awarded compensation for this damage.”

The DFB has so far kept a low profile as to whether it is also aiming to go to the higher regional court. Despite a wave of protests from the Bundesliga, Gräfe had to end his career as a referee at the end of the 2020/2021 season after 289 appearances in the upper house at the age of 47. Even in the previous decades, no referee had whistled in the Bundesliga. The ruling of the district court is now a fundamental judgment for the future in terms of age limit.