Mendy wins most of his $14 million unpaid pay case against Manchester City

Benjamin Mendy, a former defender for Manchester City, won a case against the club on Wednesday. He was awarded most of the over 11 million pounds ($14 million) in pay that were withheld from him after he was charged with sexual violence but later cleared.

Last year, the France player made a claim against Manchester City. It wasn’t until the end of his deal in June 2023 that the Premier League club stopped paying him. This happened in September 2021, not long after he was charged with sexual offenses.

At Chester Crown Court in January 2023, Mendy was found not guilty of six counts of rape and one count of sexual attack. He was found not guilty of one count of rape and one count of attempted rape on the second try.

The 30-year-old said in a witness statement that he had been told he would be paid after he was cleared, and that City had wrongfully taken money from his paycheck that was due to him under his contract.

City’s lawyers, on the other hand, said Mendy wasn’t paid because he couldn’t do his job because he was in jail before his hearing for breaking the terms of his bail.

Judge Joanne Dunlop said in a written decision on Wednesday that Mr. Mendy could get some of the money he claimed back, but not all of it.

A request for word from Manchester City was not answered right away.
Mendy told X in a statement: “Having had to wait for three years for my wages, I am delighted with the decision and sincerely hope that the club will now do the honorable 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.”

In her decision, Dunlop said that Manchester City could delay Mendy’s pay for two times he was in jail, which added up to about five months of his 22-month claim period.

Dunlop found that Mendy was “ready and willing to work” when he wasn’t in jail but couldn’t because he was suspended by the Football Association and had to follow bail terms “which were unavoidable or involuntary on his part.”

In 2017, Mendy moved from AS Monaco to City for a fee of about 52 million pounds. He makes 6 million pounds a year.

Soon after his retrial, he signed with Lorient, a French team that plays in Ligue 2.