Mendy v. Manchester City Football Club Ltd [2024] ET

Mendy v. Manchester City Football Club Ltd [2024] ET  

An Employment Tribunal has ruled that Manchester City must pay their former player Benjamin Mendy the majority of the £11m withheld from his remuneration when he faced rape and sexual assault charges.

Mendy, once the most expensive defender when moving to Manchester City for £52 million in 2017 now plays for FC Lorient in France’s second division.

Mendy was charged with various sexual offences and remanded into police custody in August 2021. Following this, he was suspended by the Football Association (FA). The nature of that suspension was precautionary, rather than punitive, and there were no findings of misconduct made by the FA at this point.

The Club suspended Mendy without pay from September 2021 until he left the club in June 2023. The total pay in respect of this period was around £11 million before tax.

In January 2023 Mendy was found not guilty on six counts of rape and one of sexual assault, the jury failed to reach a verdict on one count of rape and one count of attempted rape. In July 2023 he was found not guilty of those offences in a retrial at Chester Crown Court. Mendy was ultimately acquitted of all criminal charges.

Mendy brought a claim in the employment tribunal for unauthorised deductions from wages under s.13 Employment Rights Act 1996 in respect of the withheld pay.

The Employment Judge found that the Club was entitled to withhold Mendy’s salary for the periods during which he was remanded in custody, which amounted to around five of the 22 months.  The Judge was satisfied that Mendy found himself in custody (and therefore unable to perform his employment contract) in part due to his own actions in breaching the bail conditions he had previously been placed under.

The Judge considered that when Mendy was not in custody, he was also unable to fulfil his obligations under his employment contract due primarily because he had been suspended by the Football Association (FA). The Judge concluded that the suspension was therefore an impediment to contractual performance which was “involuntary” or “unavoidable” from Mendy’s perspective. The Club was therefore not entitled to withhold his pay for these periods. Accordingly, Mendy is entitled to claim around £8.5 million in unpaid wages. The exact amounts due will be calculated by the parties, or determined at a future hearing if the parties cannot agree.

The fact that Mendy’s contract contained no provision permitting the Club to withhold wages where an FA suspension and/or bail conditions prevented him from performing his obligations was an important part of the reason for this decision.