A former professional footballer and coach who lost her tribunal fight against a Scottish club has said she may take her case to the Supreme Court.
Lauren Rabbitte lodged a series of claims against Clyde Football Club and the club’s charitable foundation last year including unfair dismissal and sex discrimination.
Ms Rabbitte claimed that the club agreed to appoint her to a new role to drive forward the women’s game with a £32k salary but reneged on this, later claiming she was only ever recruited as a volunteer.
A preliminary hearing in December 2022 did not go in her favour, concluding that she was "at all times" working in a voluntary capacity.
As a result, it ruled that a tribunal did not have jurisdiction to hear her claims, which were dismissed.
However, she appealed this judgement after receiving the official court documents and discovering that 'key evidence had been missed out' by the tribunal, which she says was vital to her case.
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This included the tribunal's assertion that Ms Rabbitte had not produced any evidence for hours worked, or any detail of activities undertaken.
At a preliminary hearing held this month her lawyer said his client had recorded the hours worked at the time and provided significant evidence of this at the initial hearing.
He argued that the decision "cannot be supported by the evidence heard".
The judge, Lady Haldane, said it was correct that certain passages did not "accurately reflect what was said" at the tribunal.
However, she concluded that taking the evidence heard as a whole there was "ample material to allow it to reach the conclusion that it did."
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Ms Rabitte, who played professionally in Scotland, England the US, said she is now considering taking her case to the Court of Session - Scotland's highest civil court and said she feels "let down" by the justice system.
“I’m shocked that the mis-recording of evidence was not seen as an error of law," she said.
"Almost all of the evidence I gave was disregarded.
"I’m persisting with this because it’s the right thing to do, I’ve been denied the chance to present my full case in court.
“Women deserve to be in sport and there should be no place for unfair treatment, harassment, or discrimination. We deserve better."
The former footballer is currently doing a Masters in Sports and Business Management and also coaches pro-youth players.
She added: "The reality is that significant barriers to equality and fairness remain at some echelons of the sport.
"I am hopeful that conditions will improve, but only as long as players and coaches continue to speak out whenever things are not right: from issues with changing facilities to their work being taken for granted, to more serious cases of harassment and unfair treatment."
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Ms Rabbitte 'resigned' from her role with Clyde on March 3, 2022.
That same day, the entire Clyde Ladies team quit the team in protest at the decision to re-sign Goodwillie, who was found by a civil court to have raped a woman in 2011.
After last year's hearing, John Alexander, Chairman of Clyde FC Community Foundation said there were “no winners” despite the judgement ruling in its favour.
He said: “Despite winning, we cannot ordinarily recover our costs.
“Our vision to grow women and girls football has been severely damaged through the loss of time, the distraction, and sheer financial impact on our limited reserves as our charity battled it’s way out of the pandemic."
Ms Rabbitte, who played professionally for clubs in the UK and in the United States, said in her evidence that the women's game in Scotland was at least ten years behind England. The Lionesses reached the final of this year's World Cup but lost to Spain 1-0.
In September Scotland Women withdrew their legal claim against the Scottish FA over concerns regarding pay and treatment compared to the men's team.
The women's side launched their claim in December 2022, with Rachel Corsie, the captain, the lead claimant.
However, the club announced in September that issues had been resolved without the need for legal proceedings.
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