Mbappe and PSG could ‘blow up the whole system’

Kylian Mbappe’s lawyer has launched a new offensive towards with PSG, claiming that the Ligue 1 side believe themselves to be above football regulations and that they are threatening to “blow up” the whole framework of the game.

Mbappe left PSG to join Real Madrid as a free agent in the summer, sparking a dispute between the player and his former employers, led by president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, that has rumbled on for months since.

The France international claims that he is owed over €55 million in unpaid wages and bonuses, and while the club have been ordered to pay this sum, the Parc des Princes outfit have repeatedly contested this.

Mbappe’s lawyer Delphine Verheyden has broken her silence on the case, launching a blistering attack on the ethics of PSG.

“When I pleaded before the League’s legal committee, I told its members: ‘We come before you for an extraordinary club, an extraordinary player, but for a terribly ordinary case. There is a fixed-term contract signed, approved, executed and where the player is not paid. It is distressingly ordinary,’” she told L’Equipe.

A case much larger than Mbappe

Verheyden claims that PSG’s attitude could make contracts that footballers sign worthless if their claim against Mbappe is held up.

“To participate in a professional championship, PSG accepts the rules. But now they claim that the League and the Federation have no power over them as a club,” she said.

“We are in a case that is becoming much larger than just my client. It could blow up the whole system.

“Incidentally, the club is saying loud and clear to all the other clubs: ‘Stop paying your players, force them to go to the labour court.”

“But the labour court takes a year and a half to come to a decision in the first instance, two years on appeal and the same on cassation. They will all have finished their careers before being paid…”

’PSG trampling on players’

Verheyden claims that of the €55m that Mbappe is owed, only around €25m would go straight to the player, with the remainder going to taxes and other costs.

She added: “PSG want to escape the rules of football. The club is ready to bring down the system rather than fulfil its obligations,” she said. “If the authorities do not protect the contracts and their regulations, we send a strong signal that says: ‘You can trample on all players.’

“My goal is not to have PSG sanctioned. Otherwise, we would have seized the judges a long time ago for damage to image or moral harassment. I could have initiated proceedings… All Kylian Mbappe wants is to be paid what he is owed.”

Mbappe recently claimed that he would have stayed at PSG for his whole career had Real Madrid not come calling.