Racial discrimination claim against Liverpool FC dismissed by tribunal
Asad Farooq applied for a job as first team operations officer.
A claim that Liverpool FC racially discriminated against a man who was turned down for a job has been dismissed by an employment tribunal.
Asad Farooq applied for the job as the club’s first team operations officer in November 2022 and a tribunal, held at Liverpool Civil and Family Court, was told he was “surprised and disappointed” when he found out he was not shortlisted for the job in January the following year.
On Wednesday, the tribunal panel found he was unsuccessful because he lacked relevant experience, not because of his race.
But the panel said the club had not disclosed its racial diversity statistics despite being given the opportunity to do so.
Employment Judge Ann Nicola Benson said: “The tribunal considers an inference can be drawn from this that the statistics are not good.”
The tribunal, which began on Monday, heard there had been 487 applicants for the role including Mr Farooq, a British national with Pakistani heritage.
An initial process left 444 applicants, including Mr Farooq, but after another shortlisting process only 55 remained.
His application was excluded because his salary expectation of £35,000 was 10% more than had been identified for the role, the club said.
The 444 applications were reviewed a second time when a preferred candidate turned down the role and Mr Farooq did not make the shortlist because he lacked operational experience, the tribunal heard.
Judge Benson said Mr Farooq, who had worked on a catering operation at the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar, accepted in his own evidence he did not have operational football experience.
She said his application form did not show the experience head of first team operations for the club Louise Dobson was asking for when recruiting.
She said: “That was the reason his application was rejected. Race played no part.”
Judge Benson said the majority view of the three-strong panel was that when Ms Dobson carried out the shortlisting exercise there were no facts or inference from which they “could conclude it had anything to do with the claimant’s race”.
A minority on the panel considered inferences should be drawn that Ms Dobson had an unconscious bias because of race, the judge said.
