‘Orwellian’ football club sacked steward for sending memes

A football steward has won an £8,000 payout after he was wrongly sacked for sending memes about politicians under his club’s “Orwellian” disciplinary policy.

Gennaro Romano, 49, was sacked by Norwich City Football Club in October 2023 after sending mocked-up images of Diane Abbott and Nicola Sturgeon alongside comments about Russell Brand to the head of the academy.

The steward, who had a 12-year unblemished record, apologised and said he forwarded the WhatsApp messages by accident, an employment tribunal was told.

The championship club sacked him for breaching its disciplinary policies, a decision described as “riddled with unfairness”.

A Norwich employment tribunal heard Mr Romano had been working as a steward on matchdays since 2011 alongside his main job with Royal Mail.

In September 2023, he was accused of sending “messages of an inappropriate nature” to Neil Hunter, head of The Canaries’ academy operations.

The photos were of former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon and MP Diane Abbott with captions about actor Russell Brand.

“This was at the time when the media was reporting that allegations of sexual assault were being made against Russell Brand,” the tribunal said.

At a meeting with the club, he was shown a screen shot of two images received by Mr Hunter.

Mr Romano claimed he had meant to send the photos to a friend who is also called Neil, but had forwarded them to his colleague by accident, the tribunal heard.

The Carrow Road steward admitted the pictures were “not nice”, and apologised a number of times throughout the process, the tribunal was told.

But club managers decided that he had not shown “sufficient understanding or remorse”, and sacked him.

Upholding Mr Romano’s claim, the tribunal said the club’s decision-making process had been “riddled with unfairness”.

“It was not one which any reasonable employer would have taken,” it added.

Describing the club’s actions, the tribunal said: “If the club intends its disciplinary policy to have such an extensive, some might say Orwellian, reach, then it is incumbent on it to make that position clear.”

The tribunal awarded Mr Romano £8,300.

His claim of race discrimination was dismissed.