Pope e-mail row referee chief settles sacking case out of court

Published on Monday 25 July 2011 18:09

A FORMER referees' chief who was sacked for sending an e-mail about the Pope and child abuse has settled his unfair dismissal case against the Scottish Football Association out of court.

Hugh Dallas was planning to sue the organisation at an employment tribunal in Glasgow this week.

The e-mail, sent on the day of the Pope's visit to Scotland last September, included a graphic of the "Children Crossing" road sign, which depicts an adult and a child holding hands, altered to include the words "Warning - the Pope is coming".

Mr Dallas's departure last November followed demands from the Catholic Church that he should be sacked.

The sacking was also seen by some as Celtic Football Club claiming its first high-profile target in its ongoing battle against the SFA over perceived injustices.

Last night, an SFA spokesman said: "We can confirm that the issue has been resolved to both parties' satisfaction."

Stewart Regan, SFA chief executive, launched an internal inquiry in November after details of the e-mail emerged.

Mr Dallas, 53, head of referee development at the time, and four other SFA staff were sacked over the e-mail.

Three of the others have since been given their jobs back and the SFA is understood to be taking no further action against them.

Caroline Carr, Mr Dallas' lawyer, released a statement following the settlement yesterday.

It said: "Hugh Dallas can confirm that the issue has now been resolved to both parties' satisfaction using Acas conciliation.

"Hugh Dallas will continue to support, encourage and promote association football in Scotland and the Scottish referee movement.

"He has no further comment to make."

The five members of staff who were sacked - including Mr Dallas - were alleged to have forwarded the e-mail from their SFA accounts in breach of the organisation's IT policy.

Mr Dallas first challenged his sacking in November last year and his appeal was heard the following month by then SFA president George Peat and human resources expert Viv Coady.

Both parties agreed with Mr Regan's decision to sack him.Mr Dallas was made an MBE for services to football a few months after being picked to be the fourth official at the 2002 World Cup final.

Last November, after reports about Mr Dallas and the e-mail emerged, Peter Kearney, director of Scotland's Catholic media office, wrote to Mr Regan asking for Mr Dallas to be "removed from his post" if an internal investigation proved the allegations.

Mr Kearney wrote: "He has been accused of sending an e-mail from his SFA e-mail account on the day of the Pope's visit to Scotland, which was totally unprofessional, gratuitously insulting to the Pope, deeply offensive to the Catholic community of Scotland, and an incitement to anti-Catholic sectarianism.''

Mr Kearney wrote following the incident that anti-Catholic hostility in Scotland was "deep and wide".

He claimed that the controversy over a blatantly sectarian cartoon sent by Mr Dallas could "simply be the tip of a disturbing iceberg of anti-Catholicism in Scottish society".

The following month Cardinal Keith O'Brien appealed to politicians to guarantee "freedom of religious expression", which he said he believed was under threat in Scotland.