FORMER Premier League star Benjamin Mendy launched a legal claim against Manchester City today for £11m in unpaid wages.
The French World Cup winner has brought an employment tribunal against the Premier League champions after the club stopped paying his £500,000-a-month wages after he was charged with rape and sexual assault.
Mendy, 30, signed for the Blues in a £52m transfer from Monaco in July 2017, agreeing a £6m-a-year deal which was due to run until June 2023.
His contract also guaranteed him a £1m bonus each time City qualified for the Champions League, a further £900,000 if he played in more than 60 per cent of City’s matches and an annual £1.2m payment to his image rights company.
But documents submitted to the tribunal in Manchester revealed how the Blues stopped paying his wages and monthly employer pension contributions of £434 after he was initially charged with four counts of rape and one sexual assault in August 2021.
Mendy was remanded in custody and also suspended by the Football Association from all “footballing activities”.
Just over a month later on 28 September 2021, City officials wrote to Mendy to notify him of their decision.
The letter stated: “The club has, after careful and anxious consideration, suspended the payment of salary to you. You will not receive the payment that would otherwise have fallen due at the end of September 2021.
“Nor will you receive any further payment until you are ready and able to perform your obligations under the contract of employment.
“You are not presently ready and able to perform duties, of course, because you have been remanded in custody and, separately, because The FA has suspended you from engaging in any football-related activity.
“Our understanding is that District Judge Garva remanded you in custody because of your conduct whilst already on bail.
“Remand, was, therefore, an avoidable impediment to your being able to perform your duties. We understand that a subsequent request to be released on bail was refused. In those circumstances, the club is no longer obliged to continue to pay you.”
But Mendy – now with French side Lorient – has brought a claim for “unauthorised deductions” from wages contrary to section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
He claims under the terms of his contract, the club only had the right to stop his wages for a maximum of six weeks.
Smartly dressed in a light blue shirt and tie, Mendy appeared from a law office via video link and affirmed an Islamic oath prior to giving evidence.
City deny breaching employment law and argue Mendy violated his own contract by bringing the club into disrepute and indulging in behaviour which prevented him from playing or training.
The club initially continued paying Mendy following his first arrest in November 2020.
Mendy was found not guilty of six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, relating to four women in January 2023 after a six-month trial at Chester crown court.
Jurors could not reach verdicts on one count of rape and one of attempted rape, relating to two women, but he was found not guilty of those after a retrial in June 2023.
