Teammates lent Benjamin Mendy money after Manchester City stopped paying him, former Blues star tells tribunal

Benjamin Mendy claims other Manchester City players were present at parties at his home and that teammates lent him money when the club stopped paying him.

Mr Mendy is suing the club for more than £11 million in wages he says were unlawfully docked whilst he was under suspicion for sexual offences for which he was later cleared.

Mr Mendy, who had a six-year contract with a pre-tax basic salary of £6 million a year, claims they made "unauthorised deductions" from his wages for 22 months between September 2021 and June 2023, with his total net loss being £11,009, 548.

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Mr Mendy, now aged 30 and who plays for French Second Division side Loriet, has taken City to an Employment Tribunal with the hearing, being heard before a judge in Manchester, getting underway today (Monday).

The World Cup-winning defender, who cost the Blues £52 million in 2017, was found not guilty of seven charges of rape, one count of sexual assault and one count of attempted rape following two trials which concluded in January and July 2023.

The club continued paying Mr Mendy following his first arrest in November 2020, On August 26, 2021, he was charged with multiple offences and held in police custody. He was suspended by City the same day, for a period of 14 days, before being denied bail by a judge the following day.

The hearing was told that on August 27, the Football Association (FA) issued him an interim suspension order which prevented him from taking part in "any football related activity." That remained in place until his contract expired in June 2023.

On September 10 the club wrote to him to further suspend him for 28 days and say he would continue to receive his salary. But 18 days later, on September 28, 2021, City's General Counsel Simon Cliff wrote to Mr Mendy saying that “after careful and anxious consideration” they had decided to suspend payment of his salary.

"Nor will you receive any further payment until you are ready and able to perform your obligations under the contract of employment" it read.

Court documents shared with the tribunal said Mr Mendy “very quickly ran out of money” and had to sell his Cheshire mansion to cover legal fees, bills and child support payments after his wages were withheld. “I struggled to pay my child support, I felt awful,” the footballer said in a written witness statement.

He said his agent Meissa N’diaye, paid towards his legal fees, while teammates including England international Raheem Sterling offered “financial support”. “Raheem Sterling, Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez all lent me money to help me try and pay my legal fees and support my family,” he said in a witness statement.

The left-back described his 2021 charging as the day “my life was turned upside down forever.” After 136 days in custody, Mr Mendy was released from custody on bail in January 2022 but the FA suspension, which was reviewed in March 2022, remained in place and did so until after he was cleared of the final charges in July 2023.

In December 2022, Mr Mendy was re-arrested and remanded in custody for a breach of his conditions, and was released 19 days later the hearing was told.

Mr Mendy said in his statement he "turned to socialising" to 'take my mind off things" following the death of his father in March 2020. However, during cross-examination, Sean Jones KC., representing City, said there was a "conscious pattern where you went about meeting women and having sex with them" that started before the death of his father.

Mr Mendy said: "When my father passed away it was something really difficult to deal with. At the time I was socialising a lot more than before."

"Bringing women you barely knew home to party involves risks yes?" Mr Jones said. "Yes" Mr Mendy replied. Asked why that didn't stop him, he said: "I wasn't thinking like this at the time."

Mr Jones put it to him that: "You couldn't care less that what you were doing was in breach of Covid restrictions, police bail or exposed you to risk" he said.

He was asked if he told the club about his parties, and Mr Mendy said: "I would not say hello coach I'm having parties during Covid." He later added: "Professional obligation doesn't mean I can't go out."

Mr Mendy said in a second witness statement submitted for the hearing that other players attended the parties at his mansion in the village of Mottraw St Andrew in Cheshire. "Several Manchester City first-team players, including the club captain, were all present at the parties that I attended and hosted" he said.

“We all drank alcohol. We all had casual relations with women. We all breached Covid-19 restrictions. This does not excuse my behaviour, but I feel that it is unfair for Manchester City to single me out in the way that they have. The difference between me and the other Manchester City players is that I was the one that was falsely accused of rape and publicly humiliated.”

“I am not, however, aware of Manchester City deducting or suspending the pay of any of the other players even when it was public knowledge that such players had attended the parties.

"I do, therefore, feel it incredibly unjust that Manchester City effectively singled me out from the team when I was doing nothing different to the rest of the team" he added. During his live evidence, Mr Mendy said: "Nothing happened to them."

Mr Jones said: "The difference is by the time your pay is suspended, you were in jail, but they weren't. You're not able to perform your duties but they are.

"If what you're complaining about is that you weren't getting paid from September 2021, the reason for the difference between your position and their position is they were ready and able to perform their duties, but you weren't, do you agree?" "At the time I was in jail so yes," Mr Mendy said.

Asked by Mr Jones during his live evidence: "The way you were living your life had led to being in prison, do you agree?" "No" Mr Mendy, dressed in a blue shirt and tie and appearing via videolink, replied.

Mr Jones said the statements made in Mr Cliff's letter confirming the pay decision in September 2021 were "incontestably correct" and "obviously right." Mr Mendy said: "I was in prison, I didn't read it. I had the feedback of it but I didn't see all the words. I didn't see that."

"Now you've seen all the words, it's clear that the reason they were suspending your pay was you not being ready and able to perform your duties" Mr Jones said. "In prison I cannot play football" Mr Mendy responded.

Mr Mendy told the tribunal after being released from custody he was "ready mentally and physically to be back." However, Mr Jones said: "I am sure you wanted to go back, it' not a question of you being unwilling, it's a question of whether you were able."

At the conclusion of his first written statement, Mr Mendy said: “I would have thought that Manchester City, of all clubs, would appreciate the lack of control and anger that a person or entity has with being charged with false allegations given the Premier League allegations that they are facing.

“At no point have Manchester City apologised to me or even acknowledged how their actions almost cost me everything. I believe that it is fair and just for me to be paid the wages that I would have earned but for being falsely arrested for crimes that I did not commit.”

The tribunal is set to continue on Tuesday with a judgement being given at a later date.