Hatem Ben Arfa was today present at a hearing at Prud’hommes de Paris court as part of a litigation case he has against former employer PSG, in which he is demanding €8m in damages. The decision in this case will be announced on 16th December.
Ben Arfa is making this claim against PSG for excluding him from 1st team action between April 2017 and June 2018, a period during which he made one appearance in the 1st team squad. He is demanding €1, somewhat symbolically, for psychological and moral damage to him caused by the club and close to €8m for “opportunity cost” of him being expelled to the reserves, which corresponds roughly to the individual and team bonuses he could have received in his contract should he have been in contention for 1st team action.
PSG’s lawyer, Marie-Hélène Cohen-Guilleminet, had the following to say, per L’Équipe:
“PSG were not in breach of their obligations when they decided not to select the player, who were within their rights to do so because of failings at training and weak performance from the play… Everyone knows that he did not train enough.”
The court was in session for about three hours today to hear the relevant arguments. Ben Arfa was asked to speak at the end of the session, at which time he said this:
“All the players were surprised that I was not playing, including Neymar, because I performed very well in training. I was told: ‘You will give in, you will lose the plot.’ But I am not scared of adversity. I stayed because I was convinced that I would play for them.”