Court awards Berg £2.5m payout after Blackburn sacking

henning berg

By Tom Parsons
April 30 – Henning Berg, the former Blackburn manager, has been awarded £2.25m in compensation from the Championship side after winning his claim against the club in court yesterday.

The former Blackburn player turned manager was sacked in December just 57 days into his two and a half year contract at the club.

Berg will now be paid for the remainder of his contract with the club, who argued that current managing director Derek Shaw had acted without consulting the clubs owners, the Venky’s, to sanction Henning Berg’s compensation terms as part of his contract with Rovers.

Blackburn have had five permanent managers since the Venky’s took charge of the club back in November 2010, if Gary Bowyer takes charge on a full time basis. Their lawyers admitted in court during Berg’s trial that their club is “out of control and incompetent”.

In a brief statement, Richard Bevan the chief executive, League Managers’ Association said: “It is unacceptable for a Football League club to allow the state of affairs to arise whereby its own case before the High Court is that its managing director is ‘out of control’ and operating outside the authority of the owners.”

The club have sacked three managers during the current season, including Berg and Michael Appleton who are the club’s two shortest serving managers. They have also had Eric Black and Gary Bowyer at the helm during the course of the season. Somewhat surprisingly, the two managerial casualties haven’t been the shortest tenure’s of this season- with Alex McLeish only lasting 40 days at Nottingham Forest.

Berg said: “When the club refused to honour its obligations I had no option but to take legal action.” Rovers have also been ordered by the court to pay £20,000 in interim costs

The amount Berg has been compensated with is the equivalent of him earning £40,000 for every day he worked at the club, and £2.25 million for every win he enjoyed whilst in the hot seat at Ewood Park.

Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1733974936labto1733974936ofdlr1733974936owedi1733974936sni@s1733974936nosra1733974936p.mot1733974936