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.

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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.