Former Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy is entitled to “the majority of his unpaid salary” from the Premier League club, a judge has ruled.
The France international, who was charged with rape and sexual assault in August 2021, took City to an employment tribunal to claim about £11m before tax in unpaid wages after he was suspended without pay from September 2021 until he left the club in June 2023.
Last year Mendy was cleared of a series of rape and attempted rape charges.
Judge Joanne Dunlop ruled that City were entitled to withhold Mendy’s salary for the periods he was in custody, which amounted to about five of the 22 months he was not paid.
In a statement on social media, Mendy said: “I am delighted with the decision and sincerely hope that the club will now do the honourable thing and pay the outstanding amounts, as well as the other amounts promised to me under the contract, without further delay, so I can finally put this difficult part of my life behind me.”
A Football Association suspension meant Mendy, who was on a basic salary of £6m a year, was unable to fulfil his contractual obligations when not in custody.
Judge Dunlop said: “I found that Mr Mendy was ‘ready and willing’ to work during the non-custody periods, and was prevented from doing so by impediments (the FA suspension and bail conditions) which were unavoidable or involuntary on his part.”
She said the amount Mendy will receive will be calculated between the two parties or at a future hearing if they cannot agree.
City have declined to comment.
Mendy was remanded in custody for five months before being released on bail in January 2022. The case went to trial for the first time in August 2022.
In January 2023 Mendy was cleared of six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault.
He was then cleared of raping a woman and attempting to rape another in July 2023 at a retrial.
Mendy, who left City when his contract expired, now plays for French side Lorient.
In the submissions detailed in the judgement, Mendy’s lawyer argued that City had “a binary choice – to follow the dismissal procedure (which would, if a dismissal resulted, have freed Mr Mendy to contract with another club) or to keep him under contract and continue paying him”.
The hearing was told how on 15 occasions Mendy held or attended parties in breach of Covid-19 regulations or bail conditions, or both.
City’s lawyers argued that the suspension, being in custody and his bail terms “clearly amounted to a full impediment to Mr Mendy being able to perform his contract” and that the impediments were a result of his “culpable behaviour”.
The judgement read: “Mr Mendy’s position is that he is an innocent man whose career has been ruined, and life blighted, by false sexual allegations and that the football club which brought him to this country effectively abandoned him in his hour of need.
“Manchester City’s position is that Mr Mendy largely brought his troubles upon himself and ignored sensible advice and warning after warning in his self-destructive pursuit of his chosen lifestyle.
“Both these narratives have validity, and there is no one cause of the chain of events which unfolded in this case.
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“The question of whether Mr Mendy deserves to be paid, however, is one for the commentators and comments sections. The only question for me is whether Manchester City was legally entitled to withhold that pay.”
Mendy’s legal team said City’s then chief football operations officer Omar Berrada had said he would be paid his salary if found not guilty.
Berrada denied the claim and Judge Dunlop said any “assurances about backpay” were “irrelevant”.
Mendy, who joined City from Monaco in a £52m deal in 2017, won the Premier League in 2018, 2019 and 2021.
His final appearance for City was on 15 August 2021.
BBC
