In the dispute which has been between PSG and Kylian Mbappé for several months now, the two parties will meet this Monday, November 17 from 1 p.m. “directly at the judgment office” of the industrial tribunal, without going through the prior “conciliation” box. The reason? Kylian Mbappé is demanding, in addition to the 55 million euros in bonuses and salaries at the heart of the dispute, the reclassification of his fixed-term contracts, which lasted from his arrival in the summer of 2017 in the capital until his departure to Madrid in 2024, into permanent contracts.
The specificity of fixed-term contracts for professional athletes
If, in the general principle of the Labor Code in France, the CDD (fixed-term contract) is the exception and the CDI (indefinite-term contract) is the rule, a law of November 27, 2015, article L. 222-2-3 of the Sports Code, stipulates that “the CDD is the standard contract for professional athletes and coaches, due to the particular nature of the sector”. It aims to secure the use of fixed-term contracts for professional athletes, for periods ranging from twelve months to five years.
This 2015 law does not apply to contracts that were signed before this date. Two champions were thus able to step into the breach to have their demands recognized. In 2017, former rugby player Patricio Albacete was able to reclassify his contract with Stade Toulouse as a permanent contract, a judgment confirmed by the Court of Cassation in 2022. She considered that her employment was permanent and therefore incompatible with a fixed-term contract.
The previous Adrien Rabiot
The most recent and high-profile case concerns Adrien Rabiot. After an initial rejection from the Industrial Court, the Blues midfielder obtained before the Paris Court of Appeal the reclassification of his multiple fixed-term contracts at PSG (from 2010 to 2019) into permanent contracts last June.
The midfielder accused PSG of having taken, during his last year at the club and when he did not want to extend his contract, disciplinary sanctions against him by excluding him from the group then depriving him of matches, as well as the non-payment of an ethics bonus.
The reclassification of fixed-term contracts into permanent contracts had made it possible, according to the player’s lawyer Mr. Romuald Palao, to “sanction the club for the arbitrary and unjustified sidelining of the player, who had also been unfairly sanctioned by the club, a sanction which should not have existed. » “By requesting a reclassification into permanent contracts of his fixed-term contracts for a total of nine years at PSG, Adrien Rabiot has just asserted his rights,” he added.
A version confirmed by those around him: “Adrien would not have made this request for requalification if everything had gone well at PSG. » This court decision opened the right to a series of back pay, compensation and damages for the benefit of the former Marseillais. PSG was ordered to pay Adrien Rabiot a total sum of more than one million euros.
Mbappé and “the employee facing the bad payer”
The case of Kylian Mbappé is slightly different because he signed his contract with PSG two years after the 2015 law. Which does not prevent him from seeking requalification into a permanent contract by trying to prove that the Parisian club did not respect the terms of the contract. “It could succeed if the conditions of the 2015 law, which generalizes the use of fixed-term contracts for professional athletes, are not respected,” explains Me Estelle Saboury, lawyer specializing in social law.
The striker was sidelined from the professional squad at the start of the 2023-2024 season by PSG. He wanted to complete his contract until the summer of 2024, while closing the door to an extension at the end. Mbappé was finally reinstated after the first day of the championship.
“There is just one employee facing a deadbeat,” Mbappé’s lawyer, Me Delphine Verheyden, denounced in April, adding that her client “takes responsibility for ensuring his rights are respected, for him but also for all the other players” harmed by their clubs.
“There is a financial interest,” continues Me Saboury. The reclassification of a fixed-term contract into a permanent contract makes it possible to obtain severance pay which is calculated according to seniority and salary level, compensation in lieu of notice, paid leave upon notice as well as compensation for dismissal without real and serious cause. In the context we are talking about, the amounts can be very high.”
PSG and the Real Madrid striker’s entourage wished to reserve their comments for the hearing. Injured for the Blues’ match in Azerbaijan this Sunday and returned to Madrid, the captain of the France team will not be present at the hearing. The court’s decision will not be taken for several months, taking into account the deadlines in force at the Industrial Tribunal.
A decision that will set a precedent?
The judgment will indeed be watched closely. The reclassification of the Real star’s contract would set a precedent and could lead to modifying the economic model of French professional sport. “A generalization of player contracts on permanent contracts would require clubs to respect the termination rules of the Labor Code, to abandon part of the current flexibility in workforce management, and could call into question the transfers of players who could potentially leave freely at any time by resigning like any employee,” estimates the BCTG firm, which has sectoral practice in sports economics.
Conversely, “this could, on the contrary, reduce their mobility, not to mention a competitive imbalance between French clubs and their international counterparts”.
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