Manuel Gräfe has won the age discrimination case against the DFB. He will be compensated.
Manuel Gräfe was successful with his lawsuit against the German Football Association (DFB). The former referee will receive 48,500 euros in compensation for age discrimination, according to a ruling by the Frankfurt Regional Court. The court, presided over by judge Wilhelm Wolf, considered it proven that age “did not play a completely unimportant role” in not considering the Berliner for the list of referees for the 2021/22 season. The ruling can still be appealed before the Higher Regional Court.
The ex-referee had originally demanded damages of €194,905 from the DFB for not being considered. The court did not meet the demand in this amount because Gräfe would have had “no guarantee of a certain number of appearances” even if he had been on the list. “The amount is in reasonable proportion to the damage suffered,” said Judge Wolf.
Gräfe had already received 70,000 euros for the use of his personal rights before the trial. Even if there was no official age limit in the DFB’s rules, there was “enough evidence” that this was practised in reality, the judgement stated: “The defendant’s age was a contributory cause. It need not have been the sole cause, but it is one of several.”
Despite a wave of protests from the Bundesliga, Gräfe, who stayed away from the pronouncement of the verdict, had to end his career as a referee at the end of the 2020/2021 season after 289 appearances in the top flight at the age of 47. Even in the decades before, no referee had refereed longer in the Bundesliga. An amicable settlement had failed at the start of the trial in mid-November, after which the two parties to the dispute were able to submit written statements.
In order to reach an amicable settlement, Gräfe had insisted that his age be recognised as the reason for his dismissal. The DFB firmly rejected this.
The Berliner had always emphasised in court that his complaint was not necessarily about continuing his own career as a referee. Rather, he wanted to ensure a fundamental ruling for future generations.
