As revealed by L’Equipe and Foot Mercato, the French Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Paris Saint-Germain in its dispute with Hatem Ben Arfa, the club’s 38-year-old former attacking midfielder. Accusing PSG of moral harassment after being excluded from the first team for over a year, Ben Arfa has now seen all his appeals exhausted, as the courts at no point recognized the existence of moral harassment on the part of the club.
“Justice: Hatem Ben Arfa loses his battle with PSG”
After arriving at PSG in 2016, Hatem Ben Arfa was brutally sidelined in April 2017, following an open conflict with president Nasser al-Khelaïfi and a remark addressed to the Emir of Qatar. Deprived of competition for the entire 2017-2018 season, the player took the case to court, claiming 7.7 million euros for moral harassment. Although the Paris Court of Appeal awarded him 100,000 euros in compensation for unpaid wages and a symbolic euro in 2023, the Court of Cassation has just definitively rejected his accusations, finding in favor of PSG on every point.
The Parisian club, which has always defended management in line with employment law, welcomes this decision, which puts an end to a procedure described as “abusive”. For Ben Arfa, this marks the end of a long legal battle, with no recognition of moral harassment, and the end of a dispute that marked the end of his career at the highest level.
