Man City lose legal fight over former player’s unpaid wages
Manchester City have been ordered to pay Benjamin Mendy more than £8m in unpaid wages after their former defender won an employment tribunal against the Premier League club.
The English champions stopped paying Mendy his £6m salary in September 2021 after he was charged with multiple sexual offences and continued to withhold payment until his contract expired in June last year.
The 30-year-old, now playing for Lorient in his native France, was eventually acquitted of all criminal charges.
Mendy claimed £11m in unpaid wages over a 22-month period. The tribunal found that City were only entitled to withhold wages for a period of five months when he was jailed for breaching bail conditions, but not for the remaining 17 months.
“The result of this decision is that Mr Mendy will be entitled to receive the majority of his unpaid salary, although not all of it,” read a summary of the verdict by employment judge Joanne Dunlop.
“He spent two periods in custody, which accounted for approximately five months of the 22-month period covered by the claim. The exact amounts due will be calculated by the parties, or determined at a future hearing if the parties cannot agree.”
The tribunal heard that Mendy had to borrow money from Manchester City teammates after his salary was cut off in the wake of the criminal charges.
“During the periods when Mr Mendy was not in custody, he was also unable to fulfil his obligations under his employment contract. The Judge found this was primarily because he had been suspended by the Football Association (FA),” the decision continued.
“The nature of that suspension was precautionary, rather than punitive, and there were no findings of misconduct made by the FA. The Judge concluded that the suspension was therefore an impediment to contractual performance which was “involuntary” or “unavoidable” from Mr Mendy’s perspective.
“The Judge further concluded that the bail conditions Mr Mendy was under were influenced, at least indirectly, by the FA suspension, and were themselves an involuntary or unavoidable impediment. The club was therefore not entitled to withhold his pay for these periods.
“The fact that Mr Mendy’s contract contained no provision permitting the club to withhold wages where an FA suspension and/or bail conditions prevented the player from performing his obligations was an important part of the reason for this decision.”
Manchester City signed Mendy from Monaco for £50m in 2017 and he went on to help them win three Premier League titles in four years before his dispute with the club.
He was also part of the France squad which won the 2018 World Cup in Russia.