Leeds United accused of sex discrimination at tribunal
AN employee at Leeds United was fired by Massimo Cellino because of a relationship with a head coach at the club, a tribunal was told this week.
Former Education and Welfare officer Lucy Ward was fired from her position in July 2015 after 17 years years, and is now claiming unfair dismissal and sex discrimination at the hearing.
She said that she was associated with her partner Neil Redfearn, which was why she was fired.
The tribunal heard that she felt she was “treated like a piece of meat” at the club, which denies any wrongdoing.
Representatives from the club said Ms Ward was fired for exceeding her annual leave allowance. She had travelled to Canada to work as a BBC analyst at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Ms Ward said she was told by chairman of Leeds Ladies FC Gary Cooper that Mr Cellino had said to him: “Football is no place for women, they should be in the bedroom or the beauticians.”
Ms Ward was a former Leeds Carnegie player between 1996-2009, with a spell at Doncaster Belles in 2002.
Mr Cellino took over the club in April 2014 and since then has undertaken cost-cutting measures including renegotiations with former owners GFH over debt repayments, as well as heavily restructuring the business with redundancies.
