Manuel Gräfe: judgment in the trial against DFB postponed

The appeal negotiation for a claim for damages by ex-referee Manuel Gräfe against the German Football Association goes into extra time. “The hearing will be reopened,” said the presiding judge Richard Kästner at the originally planned verdict. This is postponed indefinitely by the surprising decision of the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court.

Gräfe, who had not appeared at the appointment, had to end his Bundesliga career after 289 missions in the summer of 2021 because of the age restriction of 47 years at that time. The Frankfurt Regional Court had considered this as a age discrimination and awarded the former FIFA referee in January 2023 a compensation of 48,500 euros.

Gräfe had come into appeal against this judgment because the court at that time denied him a potential loss of earnings for the following years. The current amount in dispute in the amount of around 830,000 euros is essentially calculated on income that the 51-year-old Berliner could have achieved as an impartial seasons in the four subsequent seasons if the DFB had not been canceled by the Bundesliga referee list.

However, the OLG sees question marks in terms of the exact process in the cause. Both parties were pointed out “that, according to the current state of the negotiation, there were doubts about the correctness of the statement that on April 19, 2021 the defendant’s decision to no longer take into account the plaintiff for reasons of age had already been made” and grave this was reported to this by the DFB referee chief Lutz-Michael at the time, said Kästner.

The DFB was asked to submit its statutes to the court within three weeks, in particular the regulations contained therein on the referee. Both sides should also comment on whether they agree to clarify the facts in the written procedure.