Roberto Mancini has appeared to acknowledge he had “a double contract” while managing Manchester City, following the club’s guilty verdict for breaching the Premier League’s financial rules. However, the former City coach, now in charge of Italy, said the developing scandal was “not a problem that concerns me.”
Mancini’s comments ahead of Nations League
Speaking at Italy’s news conference in Turkey before a Nations League match on Monday, Mancini addressed questions about his contract with City. “It’s not a problem that concerns me,” he said. “Anyhow, it’s not something new, because every four or five years this comes up. Manchester City is not guilty and the fact of having a double contract isn’t my problem but theirs, probably.”
Background to the allegations
Among the charges City faced was an alleged failure to provide accurate details for player and manager payments between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons. In 2018, the German magazine Der Spiegel published evidence showing that Mancini doubled his base salary of £1.45m for advising a club in Abu Dhabi.
Mancini guided City to their first Premier League title in 2011-12, a half-century after the club’s previous league triumph, and also won the FA Cup in 2011. He was dismissed by City days after a shocking loss to Wigan in the FA Cup final in 2013.
City’s response
City said on Friday that their case with the Premier League was “ongoing.” The club has always denied wrongdoing, and the chair, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, restated that stance in a letter to fans on Saturday. “The Premier League process still has a long way to run, and our confidence and intent in proving the club’s innocence is just as strong as when this began,” he said.
