Man City players joined me at alcohol-fuelled sex parties, claims Benjamin Mendy during tribunal

Former left-back, acquitted of rape and sexual assault charges, says his behaviour was mirrored by some team-mates and club were aware of it

Benjamin Mendy said “several” Manchester City team-mates joined his alcohol-fuelled parties and had “casual relations with women” as he launched an £11 million unpaid wages claim against the Premier League champions.
The full-back was suspended by City in August 2021 after being charged with four counts of rape and then denied his £6 million-a-year salary while he awaited trial.
However, after being acquitted last year on all counts, he has now taken the club to a tribunal, claiming his partying at the time of the allegations was mirrored by other players at the club.
“Several Manchester City first-team players, including the club captain, were all present at the parties that I attended and hosted,” claims Mendy in a written statement contained in a supplementary evidence bundle. There is no suggestion that any behaviour was non-consensual.
Mendy, who spent more than four months in custody before being released on bail in January 2022, adds: “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.”
Mendy does not name the players he is referring to. At the time of Mendy being initially investigated by police, Brazil midfielder Fernandinho was club captain. Earlier in Mendy’s career at the Etihad, Vincent Kompany and David Silva had been club captains. City’s current club captain is Kyle Walker. Mendy is being represented by leading sports lawyer Nick De Marco KC at the two-day hearing in Manchester, which will decide whether City should now pay him loss of earnings.
The former France defender, currently playing as a left-back for Ligue 2 club Lorient while also living in Madrid, says he was acting no differently than other players in a second witness statement “in respect of my claim against Manchester City for unpaid wages”.
“I can’t help but feel that the club are trying to paint a narrative that I was acting recklessly, and my alleged recklessness led to me being arrested for crimes I did not commit,” he said. “I would just like to stress that at the time in question, I was doing nothing different than several of Manchester City’s first-team players.”
From September 2021 until the expiry of his contract, City did not pay Mendy because they deemed him unavailable for work during his bail and subsequent trial and retrial. During cross-examination, Mendy acknowledged he partied at times when he should have been resting but blamed some of his lifestyle choices on the death of his father.
However, in his statement, he said: “I was just as ready, willing and able to perform my duties as the other Manchester City players that Manchester City knew attended the parties, and on Manchester City’s account, acted recklessly. 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.”
Mendy signed for Lorient at the start of last season. He joined City from Monaco in a £52 million deal in 2017 and won Premier League titles in 2018, 2019 and 2021. His final appearance for the club came in the Premier League on August 15, 2021.
In January last year, he was cleared of six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. He was then cleared of raping a woman and attempting to rape another in July at a retrial.