EX-MANCHESTER City star Benjamin Mendy thought he could behave “as irresponsibly as he liked” and still be paid his £6million-a-year salary, an employment tribunal heard.
The French World Cup winner, 30, is claiming £11m in back pay which the Premier League champions withheld after he was charged in August 2021 with four rapes and one sexual assault.
The offences were alleged to have been carried out during Covid lockdown parties at his £4.6m mansion in Prestbury, Cheshire.
But Mendy was cleared after two trials in January and June 2023.
A month after he was charged, City bosses wrote to the player – bought for £52m in 2017 from Monaco – and told him they were stopping his £500,000-a-month salary.
They said he was “not presently ready and able to perform” the obligations of his contract, namely to train and play games.
He had also been suspended by the Football Association from taking part in “footballing activity”.
Sean Jones KC, for Man City, also outlined a number of times where Mendy breached Covid rules by hosting house parties, some of which resulted in him being remanded in custody for breach of bail.
He told the hearing in Manchester today/yesterday(TUES): “The essence of the submission by Mr Mendy is that his contract creates a moral hazard.
“He says ‘I can behave as irresponsibly as I like, I can ignore all the rules, both legal, of the club and common sense to the point where my behaviour results in prison.’
“He is trying to make a moral hazard into a virtue.
“He says ‘It should in no way affect my entitlement to pay. There should be no consequences to my behaviour.'”
As Mendy listened in via video link, Mr Jones told Employment Judge Joanne Dunlop: “The contract of employment is at its heart a work/wage bargain.
“He should be able to play and he could no neither because of his behaviour.
“We are not here saying he committed rapes and assaults and it was not assumed that he was guilty.
“It is not the allegations per se, it was the way he behaved under police bail which made custody inevitable.
“The culpability is very clear. He had, in whole or in part, contributed to the state of affairs where he was unable to perform his duties.
“The question about whether his salary was payable is not about discipline.
“The reason is not because he was subject to disciplinary sanction but because he was unable to perform his duties.”
Mr Jones said there were four periods to consider – from September 2021 until January 2022 when he was in prison on remand for breach of bail conditions; from January 2022 to December 2022 when he was released on bail with restrictive conditions; from December 2022 to January 2023 when he was again in custody on remand and from January 2023 to Juine 2023 when his contract was terminated.
He said that Mendy’s arguments that he was not doing anything different to five other City players who went to parties was “a red herring” because the other players were still “ready, able and willing” to play and train.
In documents submitted to the hearing, Mendy suggested teammates who attended the parties were Jack Grealish, Kyle Walker, Riyad Mahrez, Raheem Sterling and John Stones.
None are accused of any wrongdoing.
The tribunal was also told Mendy’s bail conditions included reporting requirements and travel restrictions which meant that he would not be able to get to any of City’s fixtures.
Jenny Wiltshire, a solicitor who represented Mendy during his two rape and sexual assault trials, admitted the footballer had not tried to change the bail conditions to allow him to train and play because she knew that he was subject to an Interim Suspension Order from the Football Association which prevented him from taking part in any footballing activities.
She said: “We couldn’t specifically ask for conditions that allowed him to work when he was suspended.
“If the club was happy for him to work or to train, we would have applied to amend any bail conditions so that he could do so.
“The purpose of the bail conditions was never to prevent him working. It was just the fact that the reality at the time was he was not working.”
Mendy, now at the French club Lorient, was cleared of seven rapes and two sexual assaults after two trials at Chester crown court in January and June 2023.
He has brought a claim for unauthorised deductions from wages, saying under the terms of his contract, the club had the right to stop his wages only for six weeks.
Mendy also revealed he was lent money by teammates Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez as cash dried up after his arrest.
Man City deny breaching employment law and say Mendy violated his contract by bringing the club into disrepute and indulging in behaviour which prevented him from playing or training.
On Monday City’s then chief football operations officer Omar Berrada – now in the top job at Man United – denied telling Mendy’s agent the player would receive his salary in full if and when he was cleared.
During his time at City, the tribunal heard, Mendy received around £25m in salary but missed 123 of 240 games.
Employment Judge Dunlop will issue a verdict at a later date.
