Legal dispute with former goalkeeper Müller: 1. FSV Mainz 05 e.V. appeals decision with assistance of Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek

1. FSV Mainz 05 e.V. files an appeal against the March 19, decision of Mainz Labor Court (Case 3 Ca 1197/14) at Rhineland-Palatinate Higher Labor Court (Case 4 Sa 202/15). The team with its Head Chairman Harald Strutz and Manager Christian Heidel is represented in the appeal by Dr. Johan-Michel Menke, Certified Specialist for Employment Law and sports law expert of the law firm of Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek.

Goalkeeper Heinz Müller had filed a lawsuit against 1. FSV Mainz 05 e.V. among others because of the expiry of his player contract last summer; Mainz Labor Court decided thereupon that the stipulation of a time limit in the player contract had been ineffective and the employment at the team had not ended.

Strutz, a lawyer himself, Heidel, and Menke – jointly with the sports employment law team led by partner Kay Jacobsen at Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek's Hamburg office – are pursuing an amendment of the first-instance judgment with the appeal, as far as the stipulation of a time limit was adjudged to be ineffective.
Should the judgment, which also attracts attention in international soccer, be confirmed in the last instance, this would entail substantial consequences for existing professional contracts, but also for personnel planning in German professional teams.