It’s a long-running saga that is taking shape, and we seem closer to its beginning than its end. Ordered by the LFP legal committee to pay the 55 million euros in arrears claimed by Kylian Mbappé since his departure, PSG has no intention of doing so. Today, the club considers itself within its rights, and even says it is ready to defend itself before another jurisdiction, probably the industrial tribunal, authorized to settle labor law disputes, and which could thus be requested by the player’s lawyers. It must be said, PSG knows a thing or two about the courts, the Mbappé affair not being an isolated one, on the contrary. In recent years, Paris had already been the subject of several legal actions brought by its exes, for more or less similar reasons, but often linked to treatment deemed “abusive”. Let’s go back in time a little. In 2011, Paris dismissed Peguy Luyindula from its professional squad. The former French international then took the matter to the industrial tribunal, a rare occurrence in football at the time.
At the same time, the LFP legal committee ordered the capital club – under penalty of sanction – to reinstate the player in its professional group. “It’s like I don’t exist in the eyes of PSG. If the guys could piss on me, they would have pissed on me.”the interested party would declare to So Foot a few months later. At that time, the player’s lawyers had filed a complaint for moral harassment against four people: Leonardo, Antoine Kombouaré, Jean-Claude Blanc and Philippe Boindrieux, the club’s deputy general manager. In the end, PSG had decided to… extend Luyindula’s contract, who finally left in December 2012 to join Henry at the New York Red Bulls. By diving into the Parisian archives, this conflict between the club and Vikash Dhorasoo also resurfaces. Dismissed for breaches of “his obligation of reserve”, “his duty of loyalty” as well as “acts of insubordination, disobedience”, and “an attitude of permanent provocation“, the former French international had taken the matter to the industrial tribunal. He had also claimed 2 million euros, corresponding to the salary of his last year of contract, and the damage suffered. An amicable (and financial) agreement, of roughly the same order, had finally been reached between the two camps.
Rabiot and Ben Arfa, become persona non grata
In 2016, after an XXL season with Nice, Hatem Ben Arfa chose to join Unai Emery’s PSG. A resounding failure. At the time, the player was even excluded from the Paris professional squad, wrongly according to him (Nasser Al-Khelaïfi had experienced a schoolboy joke made by the player against him as a humiliation). This sidelining, experienced to the rhythm of pressure, fabrications, and sanctions, including a fine of €100,000, had led the two clans to the League. Initially, the player’s lawyers had seized the legal commission of the LFP, then the industrial tribunal, for moral harassment. “They told me, ‘You’re going to give in, you’re going to lose your temper.'”the player explained during his first hearing at the industrial tribunal in 2019. Initially dismissed at first instance from his claim for nearly 8 million euros, the French international finally saw the Court of Appeal reverse its decision. In March 2023, Paris was convicted on appeal for moral harassment. The player did not receive the 8 million euros claimed but “only” 102,000 euros, corresponding to back pay and his ethics bonus.
More recently, there is also the Rabiot affair. The free departure of the Parisian kid, experienced as a heartbreak in 2019 by his training club, had given rise to a total rupture between the two camps. Excluded from the professional group for not having extended his contract in January, the Frenchman had contacted the LFP, whose legal commission had issued a warning to Paris. Reinstated, he had nevertheless been suspended with salary deduction in March, but was also deprived of his ethics bonus. The reason? A night out at a nightclub after his club was eliminated against Manchester United in C1, coupled with a controversial like on a post by Patrice Evra. A few months later, the LFP had ordered Paris to pay the ethics bonus of its player. While waiting to find out what sauce he will be eaten with, this time, in his dispute with Mbappé…
