Age legislation gives new lease of life to football refs

Football referees will be one of the highest profile beneficiaries of forthcoming age discrimination legislation, it has emerged.

Referees in England will no longer have to retire at 48, the Football Association’s compulsory retirement age, because of the age legislation which comes into effect on 1 October.

The first Premiership official to benefit will be Dermot Gallagher, who was due to retire this summer.

Last month, employment lawyers warned that Arsenal Football Club’s policy of only offering players over the age of 30 one-year contracts would also fall foul of the new age laws.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

Email(Required)

OptOut

From time to time, we will send you emails about selected products, events and services from Personnel Today and OHW+ - but you can choose to opt-out at any time. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please tick this box.

Phone

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ

Applying a blanket policy that does not take individual circumstances into account will almost certainly be in breach of the regulations, said Richard Linskell, partner at Dawsons Solicitors.