Benjamin Mendy is recovering the —relative— normality of life due to court rulings. Thus, the former defender of the Manchester City has just won the majority of the lawsuit he filed against his former club for non-payment of his salary between September 2021 and June 2023. In total, the amount claimed amounted to 13.2 million euros.
Mendy, 30, took City to an employment tribunal last month in Manchester, claiming the club had wrongly withheld his salary of more than €600,000 a month after he was accused of sexual crimes and placed in preventive detention in August 2021, although he was later acquitted.
The judge Joanne Dunlop ruled that Mendy should be entitled to the majority of his €13.2 million claim for unauthorized deductions from his wages by City. But the magistrate ruled that the ‘citizen’ club had the right to retain the money corresponding to the period of preventive detention (approximately five months) What Mendy had to go through for breaching bail conditions.
Career and life ruined
Beyond that preventive detention, Mendy was also unable to carry out his profession while free, mainly because he had been suspended by the Football Association (FA). Judge Dunlop considered that the nature of that suspension was “precautionary” and that the FA had not found any misconduct.
The ruling concludes that the suspension was an impediment for Mendy to train and play with City. That is to say, the fact that he could not fulfill his professional duties was something “involuntary” and “inevitable” for his part. Furthermore, he adds that the bail conditions were influenced, at least indirectly, by this FA suspension.
According to the judge, Mendy’s contract with the Manchester City it did not contain any provision allowing the club to withhold wages when an FA suspension and/or bail prevented them from playing football.
The footballer showed himself “delighted” with the sentence and published a statement on his networks expressing his opinion on the matter: «I sincerely hope that the club will now do the honorable thing and pay the outstanding amounts, as well as the other amounts that it promised me under the contract, without further delay so that I can finally “Leave this difficult stage of my life behind.”
Although the exact amount has yet to be agreed upon by Mendy and Manchester City’s lawyers, it is estimated that the English club’s debt to the French player is around 10 million euros.
Mendy maintains that his career and life have been ruined by false sexual accusations, and that City abandoned him when they needed him most. The club’s position is that the player brought his problems on himself and ignored advice and warnings in his pursuit of the lifestyle he had chosen.
Nick DeMarco KCMendy’s lawyer, told the court that the case had nothing to do with the footballer’s lifestyle. “As a result of accusations that turned out to be all dismissed, he spent more than four months in detention, time that he will never be able to recover,” he defended.
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