WhatsApp Evidence Upends Lazio Roma’s Defense in Pregnancy Discrimination Case
25.06.2026 - 03:04:39 | boerse-global.de
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has ordered Italian Serie A club Lazio Roma to pay Swedish footballer Maja Göthberg €69,333 in compensation after finding that the club withdrew from a binding employment agreement once it learned of her pregnancy. The ruling, announced in late 2024, hinges on a chain of WhatsApp messages that both sides had exchanged during contract negotiations.
Göthberg, a key figure in Lazio’s promotion to Serie A, had reached a verbal agreement with the club on a contract extension in the summer of 2024. Shortly after she disclosed her pregnancy, club officials stopped responding to further talks and later argued that no legally valid contract existed because no physical signature had been obtained.
CAS rejected that claim. The judges determined that the WhatsApp correspondence proved both parties had already settled on the essential terms — salary, duration, and duties — making the oral agreement legally binding under Italian and FIFA employment law. The ruling explicitly states that a signed document is not required for a contract to be enforceable when mutual consent is clearly documented.
Beyond the contractual breach, the court also condemned Lazio for violating medical confidentiality. The club had informed Göthberg’s teammates about her pregnancy without her permission, a move the CAS called a clear infringement of professional privacy standards.
The compensation package covers unpaid wages and non-material damages for emotional distress. Göthberg said after the decision: “A pregnancy should never be treated as an obstacle to professional opportunities in sport.”
FIFPRO, the international players’ union, hailed the judgment as groundbreaking. It noted that the ruling reinforces the FIFA maternity protection regulations, first tested in a similar 2023 case won by Icelandic international Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir. That earlier case also involved a club that tried to back out of a contract after learning of a pregnancy, and the union sees both decisions as a clear signal that professional football clubs cannot evade contractual duties when athletes start families.
Legal experts view the outcome as a warning to teams worldwide: labour rights in sport increasingly mirror those in general employment, and family planning cannot be used to short-circuit valid agreements.
In a separate but related development, the German Football League (DFL) recently clarified its position on contract lengths. While clubs in France face a five-year maximum and Italian teams can sign players for up to eight years, the DFL stated there is no binding upper limit for Bundesliga contracts. It only issues a non-binding recommendation of five years. German clubs can use the flexibility of the country’s Part-Time and Fixed-Term Employment Act, which grants a right of termination after five years for longer deals. Bayer Leverkusen has already taken advantage, tying midfielder Francis Onyeka to the club until 2032. The growing complexity of sports labour law, as illustrated by the Göthberg ruling and Germany’s contractual freedom, underscores the tension between long-term planning and individual worker protections.
