Mainz loses legal battle with El Ghazi over unfair dismissal

Mainz, who took proceedings against their former player after expressing his online beliefs in 2023, have failed in their unfair dismissal case.

Mainz 05 has officially announced that its appeal in the Anwar El Ghazi case has failed in the courts and subsequently released a statement which follows:

“We have to accept the court’s decision, which found that the behavior and actions of our employee following the heinous Hamas attack in 2023 did not constitute sufficient grounds for immediate dismissal,” explained Stefan Hofmann, the club’s chairman and CEO.

The club had terminated El Ghazi’s deal, now 30 years old, after his pro-Palestinian Instagram post following the Hamas-sponsored terrorist attack on Israel on October 7.

The labor court declared the summary dismissal invalid in July, and Mainz appealed to the Rhineland-Palatinate State Labor Court – only to lose.

The chamber, which was unavailable for comment, interpreted the posts objectively and eventually came to a concrete conclusion on the incident. 

After the necessary balancing of interests, they concluded that freedom of expression outweighed the employer’s interests in this case. A summary dismissal was therefore not justified, the statement said.

“However, we stand by our position in terms of content: Based on the values and convictions that define Mainz 05,” Hofmann added. 

“The continued employment of persons who express and behave in fundamental contradiction to these values will be excluded in the future as well,” he concluded.