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The former footballer of the France team had attacked the managers of his former team, Manchester City, after they stopped paying him from August 2021, the start of his legal woes, to June 2023. Cleared, he demanded salary arrears. He won his case this Wednesday, November 6.
Benjamin Mendy, the French footballer acquitted last year of charges of rape and sexual assault, won his case this Wednesday, November 6 before a British court in his trial against his former club, Manchester City. He was demanding back pay following his indictment.
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The former French international demanded 11.5 million pounds (around 13.8 million euros) from City, who had stopped paying him after his remand in custody in August 2021, until the end of his contract in June 2023.
Now a player for FC Lorient in Ligue 2, Mendy will be able to recover part of his unpaid wages, as decided by a Manchester employment tribunal. The exact amount will be determined either by agreement between the two parties, or at a subsequent hearing if a compromise is not reached.
The judgment specifies that the footballer is “authorized to recover part, but not all, of the sums claimed”.
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Judge Joanne Dunlop stressed that when Mendy was not in custody he was “ready and willing” to work but had been “prevented” from doing so. She added that, in these conditions, and in the absence of a clause in the contract allowing the club to suspend his salary, Mendy was entitled to be paid.
In January 2023, Mendy was acquitted of six charges of rape and one of sexual assault. Then, in July, in another trial, he was cleared of a seventh charge of rape as well as attempted rape.
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During the trial in October before the employment tribunal, Mendy said he had to borrow money from former teammates to cover his legal costs and alimony. “At no time have Manchester City apologized to me, or even acknowledged that their actions cost me almost everything,” he lamented.
Before his indictment, Mendy received 500,000 pounds per month at Manchester City. The club had suspended its payments after his detention, justifying this decision by the judicial control measures and the suspension of the person concerned by the English Football Federation, which prevented him from exercising his profession as a player.
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