The trial of Benjamin Mendy lifted the lid on a seedy underworld inhabited by a breed of footballers where money is no object - and attractive young women are targeted for sex. 

The 28-year-old Manchester city star has been found not guilty of six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, relating to four young women. However, the jury were unable to reach verdicts on another count of rape and one attempted sexual assault. 

Meanwhile, his 'sidekick' Louis Saha Matturie, 41, was found not guilty by the jury of three counts of rape relating to two teenagers.

Jurors also failed to reach verdicts on three counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault against him by five other women.

Six months of court hearings revealed a sleazy jungle where young women are 'procured' by nightclub promoters with, quite literally, a bounty on their heads.

In Mendy's case, women aged between 17 and 29, were 'targeted' by him and Matturie, whose role was to pick out women to take back to Mendy's house for 'parties'.

Now promoters also use sophisticated apps designed to ensure a fresh flow of attractive young flesh to sate the demand of men such as Mendy and Matturie who judging by evidence heard in the trial view girls as nothing more than playthings. 

Mendy's behaviour was flagrant and prolific - continuing as it did, long after his first arrest in November 2020, which swiftly became common knowledge in the world of football but could not be reported for legal reasons.

His hard-partying lifestyle, clubbing two or three times a week as well as inviting numerous young women to his home and frequently having sex with more than one on the same night, was an open secret among colleagues.

Marc Boixasa, former head of first team operations at Manchester City told the court that Mendy was 'not the perfect professional', frequently oversleeping and arriving late for training or treatment.

Some of the parties which led to the offences Mendy was charged with even took place while he was being treated for a knee injury between October and November 2020, which was when he was first arrested.

Despite the not guilty findings, many questions will still surely be asked about the role of Mendy's employers, Manchester City in all this, who did not suspend him from playing until he was charged in August 2021.

As he was remanded in custody, it seemed that suspension was little more than symbolic by that stage.

When, in January 2021, Mendy faced a barrage of criticism for breaching Covid Tier 4 lockdown restrictions by holding two New Year's parties at his mansion, City manager Pep Guardiola leapt to his defence, calling him a 'special guy' with an 'incredible heart'.

As it later transpired, one of those parties resulted in a claim he allegedly grabbed a young woman's private parts over her clothing.

It is impossible to say for certain whether Mr Guardiola knew of his star defender's arrest two months earlier.

But an exclusive story in the Daily Mail referring to Mendy as the unnamed 'Premier League player arrested on suspicion of rape' would suggest the club were only too well aware.

But Mendy is far from unique in the entitled realms of Premier League players, idolised young men used to being able to have anything - and anyone - they desire.

Prosecutor Tim Cray KC told the jury in opening the case: 'It has little to do with football.

It is another chapter in a very old story: men think they are powerful, and because they think they can get away with it.'

It may have little to do with 22 men kicking a leather ball around, but there is no doubt that the billions of pounds swirling around between top clubs, agents and players in the sport fuels this tawdry cycle of booze, drugs and grubby sex.

Mendy's £52m transfer fee to Manchester City from Monaco in 2017 set a world record for a defender, after all, and his earnings of £100,000 a week no doubt left him with the firm impression that anything - or anyone - could be bought.

But what of the women themselves?

Mendy's defence barrister Eleanor Laws KC insisted the case was far removed from a sex trafficking trial where children or teens were plied with drink and 'had no choice'.

'Quite the reverse -- every single woman wanted to go there,' she told the jury.

'The women in this case have made choices for themselves, who decide they want to go to a nightclub, they want to drink, they want to meet someone like Mr Mendy.'

She added: 'They all enjoyed going to the pub, meeting strangers, the VIP treatment, dancing and flirting with men and having fun.

'All of them are taking risks.

They are going to the house of someone they don't know at all.

'They often arrive not even having met Mr Mendy. They wanted to be there and while they are there are these strange connections with other men and women. It's intense and superficial.'

The experience of the youngest woman to make the allegations in the case, a 17-year-old, gives an insight into both sides of Mendy's dangerous liaisons.

The girl, who met Mendy at a club, has a very glamorous Instagram profile which she admitted under video cross-examination by Mendy's lawyer, Eleanor Laws KC, makes her look a lot older.

She was already in a relationship with another man when she was introduced to Matturie by another of the girls who gave evidence in the case.

Matturie offered her a ticket in a private box for an upcoming City game and she thought he was in Mendy's entourage as a PA or a bodyguard.

She said she was excited about watching the game from a private box and sent texts to a friend who asked if it was Mendy who got her the tickets.

She replied : 'No, his bestie.'

The girl then told her friend she had been invited to dinner with Matturie and that he would be with City's hottest new recruit and England midfield star Jack Grealish.

She told the court: 'I was under the impression that he wanted lots of girls to come to this meal, this party.'

Early on the Sunday morning, she sent her mother a text saying she had been invited to a private party with Matturie and 'possibly Jack Grealish.'

She also sent a voice note to her friend telling her to 'get the f*** in here' so she could go to the party.

In a taxi, en route, she denied when cross-examined that she was 'happy' to give up her mobile phone and said: 'It was a very ambiguous situation. It shocked me at the time.

We were forcefully asked to give up our phones'

She also denied a suggestion there was 'a fun atmosphere' in the taxi to Mendy's house but admitted there was a bottle being passed around.

When they reached Mendy's luxury home in the Cheshire 'footballer's belt' village of Prestbury there were a number of people in the house including friends of Mendy from France.

Balloons were still up from a birthday party the previous day for Mendy's nephew.

Standing around the swimming pool, the girl said that she took off her clothes apart from her underwear and a baseball jersey which 'just covered my bottom.'

She said she had taken some cocaine before leaving home and had drunk half a raspberry vodka and some champagne at the party.

Mendy 'prompted her' to come over and complimented her on her eyes and figure, and she admitted lifting up her top at the back when he mentioned her bottom.

She agreed to go into an office with him for more privacy and when the door closed behind them, she presumed Mendy had locked it.

She denied a suggestion from Mendy's barrister that he told her he wanted sex, insisting: 'He did not say anything about sex.

There was no build up conversation.'

As she sat on a sofa she performed oral sex on Mendy, who was standing. She agreed she performed the act but added: 'I did not say I wanted to.'

She admitted that in her first police interview lasting three hours, she failed to mention the oral sex.

She added: 'It was traumatic.

It is something you do not expect to happen when you are in a room with someone.'

She denied being happy to perform the act or that there had been eye contact between them.

The pair then had full sex. She told the court: 'There was no communication at all.
He turned me over and put me in that position. It was quite gentle but he turned me over.

'I did not want to because I thought the door was locked and I was f*****g scared.. In that moment I just froze. it was an internal response.

'I wanted it to stop.

I did not indicate anything. I just froze up. I did not consent to sex.'

She denied there had been a short discussion about whether she was on the pill but said she had a text from Mendy the next day saying 'don't forget' (morning after pill).

In a Snapchat message, Mendy had said to her he wanted to have sex with her every night if he could and that she had the body and the a*** of a 17 year old.

She added: 'I was in complete shock.

My body was in complete shock. I had not done anything. Something awful was done to me.'

She left the office but didn't attempt to leave or retrieve her phone which she said had been locked in a safe.

She sat on a sofa and talked to another young woman, whose complaint against Matturi was also told to the court.

The court was played voice notes which the 17-year-old had sent to friends the following morning in which she could be heard giggling and saying 'oh my God, it was amazing' and claiming she had been made to sign an NDA.

One voice note also said of Grealish: 'He is so sexy.

He was winking at me and saying I was beautiful. I did not sleep with him because I am not easy but I have been invited out to dinner with them next Sunday.'

She had also described it as 'a peak of my life evening.'

She later told her mother and boyfriend what happened and they told her to go to the police, The matter was mentioned to Man City's director of football.

She said did not want these things to happen, but denied she had been forced into a corner by what she had told her mother and boyfriend, saying: 'I think it was the right thing to do.

In my mind it was always the right thing to do.'

She agreed she had posted on Snapchat after the alleged rape that she 'became one of the 97 percent last night' - a reference to the number of women said to have suffered sexual assaults.
The post was accompanied by a close-up of her lips .

But she deleted her Snapchat story and also a WhatsApp group chat with a circle of friends.

Questioned by Lisa Wilding QC on behalf of Matturie, she denied a suggestion that she was 'very keen' to meet Jack Grealish and had gone to the party in the hope of meeting him.

She also denied asking Matturie for Grealish's phone number, which he refused to give.

She also denied that the sex with Matturie, which had taken place in the cinema room where there were other people, had been consensual.

Ms Wilding said that the girl had been happy about having had a great day but then became worried about her ex-boyfriend finding out that she had had sex with two different men.

'What you said to [him] just grew and grew and that is why we are here today,' said Ms Wilding.

The Mendy case also shares disturbing similarities with the parties enjoyed by other footballers, such as confiscating the women's mobile phones, ostensibly to prevent them filming.

Unlimited supplies of alcohol - and though not a factor in Mendy's case, drugs such as cocaine and cannabis -- also help to break down inhibitions as the night wears on and are prevalent on the 'soccer scene'.

In the Mendy case, the court heard that nitrous oxide, or laughing gas canisters were frequently inhaled at the parties.

MailOnline investigated how footballers 'on the hunt' find their 'conquests' and what the women were seeking as they embarked on this dangerous game.

We spoke to one woman journalist who infiltrated the London nightclub scene some years ago in search of celebrity stories.

'Basically attractive young women are treated as a commodity to be shipped into the clubs,' said Anna*, now 32.

'The promoters used to hang around outside Top Shop in Oxford Street and approach young girls asking if they wanted to go to a party in a smart nightclub in Mayfair, with free Champagne all night.

Of course, many said yes.'

Anna recalls that the girls who frequented the clubs had a variety of motives: 'I think the majority were just looking to have some fun, and if that included meeting a famous footballer, then so be it.'

Did some harbour dreams of becoming a WAG - or 강남안마방 even better a princes
/>-- since not so long ago, Prince Harry was also a frequent visitor to trendy West End nightspots such as Boujis and Mahiki.

'I don't think that was forefront in anyone's mind, but I can't speak for everyone,' said Anna.

'I think it was mostly about the lure of going a free party at a place you'd never normally be able to get into and having fun.

'But once we were in the VIP section, our phones were taken from us to stop us filming anyone, and the drink flowed.

'Away from the public gaze, there was smoking and drugs with no one raising an eyebro

/>When I first started going I was so naïve that when I was offered coke, I replied that I didn't like fizzy drinks!

'I never took drugs anyway, but I saw plenty of girls who did.'

Nowadays the promoters don't have to trawl the pavements seeking attractive young women, they can simply surf Instagram and message the girls who take their fancy, or use sophisticated apps to do the donkey work for them.

The app describes itself as 'the go-to platform to get yourself booked into nightclubs'.

Anyone wanting entry into a venue, male or female, has to upload four images - two selfies and two full-lengt

/>If the promoter is impressed, the user is told they can join the free guest list.

A Mail on Sunday investigation last month found that promoters are paid a 'bounty' of around £20 a head for each female customer they lure to a club - providing they are judged attractive enough.

Using the app, two attractive female journalists were accepted almost immediately onto the free guest lists of Wyld in Mayfair and Cirque Le Soir, just off Carnaby Street in Soho.

Their male colleagues, however, were declined equally quickly.

One of the men was told by a promoter: 'I can get you in with £800 on a tabl

/>Bottle of vodka and all the mixers included. The club will be 80 per cent girls. I can send groups of girls to your table.'

In reality, of course, attractive girls nearly always make the cut, while men will find they have to pay up to £1,500 for a VIP table - mere pocket change, of course, for Premier League multi-millionaires such as Benjamin Mendy. 

Benjamin Mendy, 28, will face a retrial on one count of rape and another of attempted rape - putting his Manchester City playing career in jeopardy after being cleared of seven other charges

Benjamin Mendy will face a retrial on one count of rape and another of attempted rape after a jury failed to reach verdicts - as he was cleared of seven other charges. 

The Manchester City star, 28, sitting in the dock at Chester Crown Court, covered his face with both hands and gently rocked back and forth as the jury foreman, delivering the verdicts in a hushed courtroom, repeated 'not guilty' to six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, relating to four young women or teenagers. 

However, the  jury were unable to reach verdicts on another count of rape and one attempted sexual assault - alleged to have taken place at Mendy's £4.7million mansion in Prestbury, Cheshire.

He will now face a three-week trial on the two outstanding counts starting on June 26.