Roberto Mancini has insisted that Manchester City’s financial case is not his concern, despite the former manager’s acknowledgement that he held two contracts during his spell at the club.
Mancini, who led City from 2009 until 2013 and is now in charge of Italy, was asked again about the matter at the Stade de France before Italy’s Nations League fixture against France. His response was firm: “No, I have already spoken about it. It does not concern me. Unfortunately, it is City’s problem.”
Pressed further, the Italian repeated that he did not see himself as part of the dispute. “Honestly, I said it in Turkey the other day,” he added, referring to comments made before Italy’s match there last weekend.
On that occasion, Mancini said City were not guilty and accepted that he had a second contract while employed by the club, though he maintained that any issue arising from it was one for City rather than himself.
The question follows the Premier League’s ruling that City were guilty on every charge connected to serious breaches of the competition’s financial regulations between 2009 and 2018. The club has consistently denied wrongdoing and confirmed on Friday that it would appeal the verdict.
Among the allegations considered in the case was whether City supplied accurate information on payments made to players and managers across the period from the 2009-10 season to 2017-18. Mancini’s employment arrangements fall within that timeframe.
Documents published in 2018 indicated that Mancini’s basic City salary of £1.45 million was matched by a separate advisory agreement with an Abu Dhabi club. It was alleged that the structure could have allowed City to avoid around £12 million in income tax and National Insurance payments connected with his pay.
Mancini was one of the defining figures of City’s first years under Abu Dhabi ownership. He delivered the FA Cup in 2011, the club’s first major trophy since the takeover, before guiding them to the 2011-12 Premier League title — their first league championship for half a century.
His City tenure ended soon after the 2013 FA Cup final defeat by Wigan, one of those Wembley afternoons that still looks improbable on the fixture list. The financial case, however, has ensured that questions from that era have returned long after Mancini left the Etihad.
