ROME (AP) — Former Manchester City manager and current Italy coach Roberto Mancini says he is unconcerned about being implicated in the financial rule-breaking scandal engulfing the English club, which on Friday said it was appealing the verdict.
In his latest comments on the issue, Mancini said: “It’s not a problem that concerns me” - despite appearing to acknowledge last weekend before a Nations League match in Turkey that he had “a double contract” as City coach from 2009-13.
Among the raft of charges that City has faced is an alleged failure to provide accurate details for player and manager payments between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons.
In 2018, German magazine Der Spiegel published evidence showing Mancini doubled his base salary of 1.45 million pounds (now $1.9 million) for advising a club in Abu Dhabi.
City has been accused of potentially avoiding paying about 12 million pounds ($16 million) in income tax and national insurance in relation to Mancini’s salary, The Telegraph reported this week.
Mancini was asked if he was worried about the case ahead of Italy’s match in France on Friday.
“No. I already spoke it about the other night. It’s not something that concerns me. It’s City’s problem, unfortunately,” Mancini said late Thursday at the Stade de France.
“It’s not a problem that concerns me,” Mancini added, repeating himself. “Look, really. I already said it the other day in Turkey.”
In Turkey, Mancini said that “Manchester City is not guilty and the fact of having a double contract isn’t my problem but theirs, probably.”
Mancini led City to its first titles after Abu Dhabi’s ruling family had bought the club in 2008, winning the FA Cup in 2011 and in 2011-12 coaching the team to its first Premier League title in a half century.
He was fired days after a shocking loss to Wigan in the FA Cup final in 2013.
City has protested its innocence throughout the long-running case, which reached a milestone Tuesday when the Premier League published a verdict saying the club was “guilty of all charges related to serious breaches” of the competition’s financial rules from 2009-18.
