The contract dispute between Paris Saint-Germain and Kylian Mbappe over the player’s unpaid salary is set to go to court after PSG rejected a recommendation by a Ligue de Football Professionel (LFP) legal commission to pay Mbappe €55million.
The legal commission told PSG to pay the 25-year-old €55million on Thursday after the France captain rejected an initial recommendation of mediation to resolve the dispute.
On Wednesday, an 18-person panel recommended that the parties should mediate their dispute after PSG withheld the payment of €55million (£46.4m; $60.6m) to Mbappe before his departure from the club on June 30.
PSG argued this was justified on the basis of financial agreements made between the player and the club last summer. Mbappe formally wrote to the LFP to invoke the commission regarding the lack of payment, and also accused PSG of moral harassment.
Mbappe’s representatives told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Wednesday that they would reject the proposal of mediation, and the commission has subsequently told PSG to honour Mbappe’s contract and pay €55million. While the LFP legal commission have stated their recommendations, they cannot compel either party to mediate or to settle.
PSG have said they will not pay Mbappe the sum and therefore without a settlement, the case is likely to go to court. Mbappe can take the matter to an employment tribunal, if he chooses to do so.
A statement from PSG on Thursday said: “Having heard the arguments of the parties yesterday, the Commission repeatedly insisted upon mediation between Paris Saint-Germain and the player to find a compromise in light of PSG’s favourable arguments. This mediation process has been refused by the player, contrary to the Commission’s recommendation.
“As such, and in light of the limitations of the Commission’s legal scope to take a complete decision on this matter, the matter must now be contested in another legal forum, to which Paris Saint-Germain is delighted to present all the facts over the coming months and year.
“As a matter of law and fact, the player has made clear, repeated public and private commitments that must be respected, having been afforded unprecedented benefits by the Club over 7 years in Paris – and the Club looks forward to these being upheld in the proper forum, if the player seeks to pursue this incomprehensibly reputationally damaging matter further, in due course.”
GO DEEPER
PSG are withholding Mbappe’s salary. Is this legal?
The LFP, and Mbappe’s representatives, have been approached by The Athletic for comment.
The disagreement between the parties stems from a dispute over Mbappe’s contract and whether he would be able to leave PSG “for free”.
This escalated last summer when Mbappe informed PSG that he did not intend to exercise a one-year contract extension, meaning he would depart on a free transfer in 2024. He subsequently joined Real Madrid.
At the time, PSG put Mbappe up for sale and the player was excluded from first-team training and the club’s pre-season tour of Japan and South Korea. He was then reintegrated into the squad after an agreement was reached with the club. In January, Mbappe said the agreement “managed to protect all the parties”.
It is the nature of this agreement that has become a point of contention.
In a letter sent to Mbappe’s lawyer Delphine Verheyden, PSG allege that Mbappe’s legal representation proposed an agreement on August 11, 2023, which would see Mbappe reduce his bonuses by €55m during the 2023-24 season, a figure reported in L’Equipe.
This led to the player’s reintegration into Luis Enrique’s squad on August 12, but this proposal was not signed nor sent to the league, as would be required under the French Football Charter.
PSG claim that the reason this was not signed was because of a verbal agreement between the club’s president Nasser Al-Khelaifi and Mbappe. This agreement, they argue, was witnessed by head coach Luis Enrique and sporting director Luis Campos, and included two scenarios.
One where Mbappe extended his contract but departed for a transfer fee worth at least €180m (£152m; $198m) in the summer of 2024, with Mbappe receiving a loyalty bonus worth €82m (£69.2m; $90.3m), and another that he would depart in June 2024 on a free transfer but would “revise downwards his remuneration conditions for the 2023-2024 season in line with the return on investment provided for in Case No 1”. In other words, in line with the amount the club would expect to receive from a transfer.
Either scenario would have entitled PSG to €98m (£82.7m; $108m) return on investment, exceeding the amount Mbappe is currently pursuing. Should the case proceed to an employment tribunal, PSG may pursue this larger sum.
Without any other agreements, French labour law protects Mbappe’s right to receive his salary, and legal experts have noted that withholding wages may violate these protections.
“In French law, the salary must be paid every month,” explained Deborah David, an employment law specialist with De Gaulle Fleurance, to The Athletic in July. “It is not possible to withhold salary, even if it is to offset the final payment.”
(Christian Liewig – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
