United supporter scores ‘own goal’ with football shirt

It’s the nature of competitive team sport that supporters of each side don’t generally like to ‘mix’ during the big games. Indeed, football, stadiums have ‘home’ and ‘away’ stands to keep the two sets of fans apart. Arguably no game is more emotive in this regard than a local derby.

Faux pas triggers social media outrage

In September, the Manchester derby between City and United took place at City’s Etihad stadium. Emotions were running high. Against this backdrop, an Etihad bar worker made the mistake of wearing a United shirt to serve drinks to City fans in one of City’s stands. Photos of the offending worker in his United shirt were posted on social media by disgruntled City fans who called the behaviour an ‘absolute joke’. City responded swiftly by confirming that the worker in question had been removed from his position.

Some serious takeaways

From an employment law perspective, this might look, initially, to be a bit of an overreaction. However, the following should be taken into account:

• The individual in question was likely to be a temp or agency worker. Football stadiums rely extensively on temporary workers to cover matchday roles including bar work. If the worker in question was in a casual role, then it is likely that he had no guarantee of further work beyond derby day itself.
• Even if the individual had been an employee, dismissal could well be justified in this case given the potential reputational damage caused by him wearing a United shirt to serve City fans.
• Aside from reputational damage, there is the additional key concern of customer (i.e. City fans) demand. Merely requiring the individual to remove his shirt would probably not be enough given that his face was clearly visible in the images shared on social media. There is the very real possibility that City fans could have recognised him in the future and been upset by this.