Tevez counts £9.3m cost of row with City
LIVERPOOL 1 vs MANCHESTER CITY 0
EXILED Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez has forfeited £9.3m in earnings, it emerged last night after the Premier League leaders revealed they had found the player guilty of gross misconduct for going on strike.
The 27-year-old hasn’t featured for Roberto Mancini’s side since September following his refusal to accept his manager’s orders and warm up during the second half of the Champions League defeat against Bayern Munich.
City stopped paying Tevez’s salary at the end of November and fined him £1.2m – the equivalent of six weeks’ wages – during a disciplinary hearing held on 21 December. Tevez, who flew back to Argentina on 7 November and confirmed he would not be returning, launched an immediate appeal, but at a further hearing on 11 January the decision was upheld.
City, who have also denied Tevez an extra £1.7m in salary payments and £6m in loyalty bonuses as a result of his actions in Munich, expect the former Manchester United favourite to take up the option of a second appeal which would be heard by the Premier League.
Meanwhile, City fans may have to get used to life without maverick striker Mario Balotelli for longer than just tonight’s Carling Cup semi final if he continues to be victimised by English referees, according to the player’s agent Mino Raiola.
“If every week some referee does this with Mario, maybe you say, ‘That’s enough’ and he goes to another country,” said Raiola of Balotelli, who is set to serve the first match of a four-game ban tonight after he was charged by the Football Association with violent conduct for stamping on Tottenham’s Scott Parker.