Former Gillingham player, Mark McCammon, who won his race discrimination case against the club after being dismissed for alleged misconduct last year, has now been awarded more than £68,000.
The 33-year-old striker made British legal history in July by becoming the first black footballer to successfully bring a claim of racial victimisation against a professional football club, which he claims put him “through hell”.
At a remedy hearing McCammon was handed £68,728 and includes loss of earnings and breach of contract, his solicitor, Sim Owolabi, said.
The former Barbados international told a four-day hearing in Ashford, Kent, in June that he was treated differently from white players at the League Two club.
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Following the initial judgement the club said they were “staggered” and hugely “disappointed” by the decision. Whilst Gillingham chairman Paul Scally has branded the Tribunal’s decision as “nonsense”, saying the case was “one of the biggest injustices and nonsense decisions” he had heard of.
He added:
“The case is not over yet and of course that is just the beginning with the decision. Now what we have to do is decide where we take that decision and how we deal with it and what the consequences are. That’s what we will be doing in the next week or two.
“Ninety-nine per cent of people know it’s a complete nonsense decision and those that are close to the club know it’s an extraordinary nonsense and there is no credibility in it whatsoever so we don’t have to go convincing them because they already know.
“There probably isn’t a single person who supports this football club or plays for the club that has turned around and thought that was a good decision, in fact quite the opposite.”
In a statement, the club said: “Further to a meeting with the Chairman and lawyers yesterday [Thursday], and having considered the judgement of the case for discrimination, it is likely a formal appeal will be lodged over the next week or so.”
