PSG: Ben Arfa to sue Ligue 1 giants for €8m in lost earnings
The midfielder, now at Rennes, has launched a suit against his former club after being frozen out of first-team consideration between April 2017 and June 2018.
Rennes midfielder Hatem Ben Arfa has filed a lawsuit against Ligue 1 giants PSG at a Paris court to claim lost earnings of between seven and eight million euros after his former club froze him out of first-team activities for over a year.
The 31-year-old France international claims that PSG’s treatment amounted to “discrimination and workplace harassment” after he was banished to the reserves after turning down a move from the Parc des Princes in the summer of 2017. Lawyers for the player took their case to the French Professional Football League (LFP) Committee on Legal Affairs on the basis that a club can only exclude a professional first-team squad member from senior duties provided it is "temporary [and] exclusively for sporting reasons relating to the management of the squad.”
PSG claim Ben Arfa was excluded for "purely sporting reasons"
The LFP did not act on Ben Arfa’s complaint and the player eventually left PSG at the end of last season, joining Rennes on a free transfer in September. However, Ben Arfa is now claiming a multi-million-euro amount in lost earnings based on bonuses and performance targets.
One example is a friendly game in Qatar in December 2017 that Ben Arfa missed through illness. The midfielder would have been entitled to a 100,000-euro bonus for appearing and provided medical documentation proving he was unwell that PSG failed to acknowledge.
PSG claim that Ben Arfa was ordered to train with the reserves for purely sporting reasons during the period in question. The case is due to be heard at the end of the year, with Ben Arfa seeking just one euro as a symbolic payment for the allegation of harassment.
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