rammieib

Gross misconduct is being sacked for an offence seriously it requires an instant dismissal.
Lawrence and Bennett have not been found guilty of gross misconduct. Read the DCFC statement, doesn’t refer to those words. If it did they wouldn’t be employed at the club anymore.
Keogh is guilty of gross misconduct according to DCFC, hence he’s now unemployed (pending an appeal). 

Ah my mistake

agreed
It cannot be liquidated damages as they have to be agreed at the beginning of a contact and have to be a true estimate of the losses suffered by the party suffering the loss.
 
Keogh will most probably be in breach of the conditions of his contract with Derby.
The only legal opening for Keogh is, was his sacking by Derby for gross misconduct fair, however it’s clear that no one forced him into the backseat of a car driven by someone he knew to have been drinking.

Fair enough but I don’t agree with your viewpoint 

Most Professional footballers contracts will have clauses excluding them from 'undertaking high risk sports' but I am not privy to the exact wording. Taking part in the activity, skiing for instance can lead to the individual receiving a disciplinary action. The company will first investigate and the investigating manager will decide if there is a case for a disciplinary to take place. The disciplinary manager (I've done both in my company) will then investigate and decide two things, 1) Whether they believe he is guilty or not and 2) The level of punishment. The most severe punishment is gross misconduct which leads to an instant dismissal. The player could appeal this. So Keogh has been found guilty of gross misconduct whilst the other two have been found guilty but punished as far as they can without sacking them for gross misconduct.  Hope this helps.

Derby County will win a legal case hands down IMO.
Feels morally wrong that because two other individuals can continue kicking a ball, and thus have an asset value (I dont believe asset value can ever be bought up as an argument here, but fulfillment of contract absolutely can), their punishment is dealt with in a separately manner.
Derby's statement on this matter about dealing with individuals who out others at risk is sheer embarrassment for the club. On face value, the offence committed by the two is of greater severity and that's all the general public/media will care about. It will them put us in a very bad light again.
Its another poor handling of the situation for me.

I agree with the above and would further add
The other two offenders have been punished by the club and by the law, Keogh, until yesterday, went unpunished, I consider the clubs offer of half pay very generous, considering Keogh is unable to play and would use the clubs medical facilities to repair his injuries. Turning down such a generous offer is perhaps another example of Keoghs bad decision making I don't mean his on field decision making but his decision to get into a car that is to be driven by someone he knows\he suspects to be over the Drink\Drive limit. 

Most Professional footballers contracts will have clauses excluding them from 'undertaking high risk sports' but I am not privy to the exact wording. Taking part in the activity, skiing for instance can lead to the individual receiving a disciplinary action. The company will first investigate and the investigating manager will decide if there is a case for a disciplinary to take place. The disciplinary manager (I've done both in my company) will then investigate and decide two things, 1) Whether they believe he is guilty or not and 2) The level of punishment. The most severe punishment is gross misconduct which leads to an instant dismissal. The player could appeal this. So Keogh has been found guilty of gross misconduct whilst the other two have been found guilty but punished as far as they can without sacking them for gross misconduct.  Hope this helps.

Written into the contract ? I would put money on a line that states “ Shall not damage the reputation of the organisation “ and that my friend would 100% nail it, pretty standard stuff really.

Because the club statement justifying Keogh’s sacking is completely at odds with retaining Bennett and Lawrence… and if you really don’t believe it’s a PR disaster then just have a search on Twitter. Can’t remember the last time United fans were talking about us.

I think 90% of the people on this forum cannot understand gross negligence.  It will also be why the club will suffer another backlash publicly.  We've already seen comments from Arter and Hendrick who are in public profile positions criticizing. Good job they are not paying the 1.7 million from their own pocket.

I think 90% of the people on this forum cannot understand gross negligence.  It will also be why the club will suffer another backlash publicly.  We've already seen comments from Arter and Hendrick who are in public profile positions criticizing. Good job they are not paying the 1.7 million from their own pocket.

I think 90% of the people on this forum cannot understand gross negligence.  It will also be why the club will suffer another backlash publicly.  We've already seen comments from Arter and Hendrick who are in public profile positions criticizing. Good job they are not paying the 1.7 million from their own pocket.

Not true. All have been found of gross misconduct. This is the same offence regardless of whether it be stealing, vandalism, fighting etc etc all are classified as gross misconduct. You do not get dismissed for fighting you get dismissed as fighting is categorised as gross misconduct.

Regardless of everything else, this day is very sad if for nothing other than the finality of it.
I’m 25, had a season ticket since I was 6, so I’ve seen him play more than any other Derby player. I’ve never known a player be so consistent in their availability. For many my age - he is Derby County. His distinctive face, mannerisms and playing style defined an era. Maybe not a successful one, but certainly some excellent memories and some fantastic football.
That’s what we should’ve been talking about with Richard Keogh. He should have retired a happy man, with a full testimonial in front of the kids. He should be sat down with an ancient Colin Gibson on Rams TV meets in 15 years’ time. We should’ve been debating in the pub with our mates what could’ve been with our rose-tinted spectacles...
All those games, all those memories, now pale into insignificance. This is what we will remember him for. Knowing the end, it’s tainted many of the memories when I look back now.
I love a good redemption story in sport. Today’s very unfortunate because we will never get one with Richard Keogh.

It was a "Drink Aware" event (Not specifically "Drink Driving")
It was Mason Bennett (Most specifically not Lawrence)!.
Other than that, the highlighted sentence was extremely well constructed!  

There are some very large anomalies in the clubs statements. Firstly stating that they applied the maximum contractual sanction they could in the case of Lawrence and Bennett. Not true. They could have dismissed both for gross misconduct quite justifiably for bringing the clubs name into disrepute, they chose not to take this course of action. 
They then dismissed Keogh for some act of gross misconduct whilst Lawrence and Bennett whom also committed acts of gross misconduct were not. This then just invites criticism of the clubs handling of the matter.

It’s a tricky one this. Think straight after everything had happened, without seeing the punishment to any of the others, I think you could have justified the sacking of any of the players involved. I certainly would’ve sacked bennett and Lawrence, and I think there’s a clear argument to be had for firing Keogh as well based on him getting recklessly injured and being unavailable to play because of it. So on the face of it, I think the club is justified here, in fact I think they’re being quite reasonable allowing him to get paid at all. 
But as I say, that’s on the face of it. Things become more complicated from a moral standpoint when you consider we allowed bennett and Lawrence to keep their jobs. As soon as you do that, you’ve pretty much committed yourself to the lenient route of dealing with the whole affair, so to then sack Keogh afterwards leaves a bad taste in my mouth anyway. Think from a legal viewpoint we’ll get away with it, because he’ll be being dismissed for a different charge of gross misconduct than bennett and Lawrence would’ve been, so I don’t think his appeal will be upheld if he’s relying on bringing up that the other two weren’t sacked. But from a moral viewpoint, I can’t back the club here at all. It just feels so wrong to let the others keep their jobs and Keogh lose his, given they were the ones convinced of criminal charges. Just stinks of a lack of morals and more focus on financials again to me, from a club lacking in integrity for a long time. This whole situation has been handled very poorly by the club imo.
However, in all fairness with that said, we did still offer him some money while he was injured to avoid this happening. Don’t think the threat of dismissal should’ve been there at all, but equally he’s not exactly deserving of pay when he can’t play through no fault other than his own. The fact we offered him any pay at all was fairly reasonable once we reached this point, so for him to not take the pay cut is imo a poor show by Keogh to a club who have given a lot to him over the years, so from that perspective, good riddance I suppose. Desperately will need replacing on the pitch mind ASAP, absolutely vital we get a proper top class replacement in, using whatever budget we have left in January.

Like others have said this does not sit easily with me as the other two have been seemingly ‘let off’ as it were. Morally it seems unfair. Legally however it would seem to be water tight. Disappointing that it has come to this as Keogh love him or not has been a good servant to the club up until this whole debacle. 
We don’t know the whole story at all, I’m sure in the years to come more will be revealed, but I can’t believe Keogh hasn’t accepted a reduced wage!? It’s still massive money and he won’t be able to sign for anyone else until/if he’s fully over the injury. No access to our staff and world class facilities either. Madness......

Not quite sure how I feel about the decision yet, especially as things may have gone on that we don’t know about.
However, if this quote is genuine from the club, it makes a mockery of the fact that we’ve welcomed Lawrence and Bennett back into the fold, despite them being the only ones who put “themselves, their colleagues and members of the general public at risk of injury or worse”.

This is such a tragic event and I feel for their family so much.
Taking all emotion and sentiment away from the situation, and again, you can't put money on a life but I assume Cardiff will still be required to pay the £15 Million? Anyone seen any official comments about this?
 
 

not until the following day

A girl agreed to go out with me after I gave her a bottle of tonic water.
Schwepped her off her feet.

Way too quiet today. Max volume on iPad and can't hear a thing.