Get back here, Tev, or get out
MANCHESTER CITY will hit Carlos Tevez with a £600,000 fine for going AWOL — and could even sack him if he does not return quickly.
Tevez should have trained yesterday but instead remained in Argentina after flying out on Monday for a break.
Last night Tevez's representatives could not say when he would return.
By not turning up he is in serious breach of his contract and City will hit the £198,000-a-week star with a three-week fine.
If he continues to be absent beyond a proposed meeting on Monday, things could get more serious.
City could sack him but hold on to his registration so any club taking him on would be liable at a tribunal to pay City his worth — around £30million.
Tevez, already fined two weeks' wages for refusing to warm-up in Munich, asked coach Fausto Salsano if he could have this week off. He was told 'no'.
The same message was relayed by stand-in chief executive John MacBeath directly to Tevez's representative Kia Joorabchian at the weekend.
But Tevez's camp claim the answer from Salsano was ambiguous, which City deny.
They also claim their player tried to contact boss Roberto Mancini directly but was ignored. SUN
AWOL Tevez says Mancini ignored calls
City striker maintains he tried to contact manager 10 times before heading home to Buenos Aires
Carlos Tevez has insisted that he attempted to contact his Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini around 10 times to ask for his permission to return to Argentina but received no communication from the Italian before taking the flight which means he is facing another two-week fine.
The Argentine maintains that he and his representatives asked two members of City's staff – acting chief executive John MacBeath and first-team coach Fausto Salsano – for permission to return home during the international break.
Salsano was ambiguous and said it was the manager's call, Tevez insists, while MacBeath, who was approached over the weekend, referred the player's representatives to Mancini, who then failed to respond to around five voicemails and the same number of text messages. Tevez insists he also tried to contact Mancini when his flight landed in Argentina on Tuesday.
"He has gone to see his family," said his spokesman, Paul McCarthy, though it is believed Tevez will also meet with Jorge Amor Ameal – president of his former club Boca Juniors. "We've said all along that Carlos is aware of the situation in terms of getting back to his fitness. I can't really say much more until he's back in the country."
Inevitably, the striker's story of why he decided to take the flight differs radically from City's version of events. Mancini has told the club that he received only one missed call from Tevez on Monday night. And while Tevez feels he has been treated differently to other players who have been granted a holiday during the international break, City say that the training regime is the same for the three players he has been training with – Nedum Onuoha, Wayne Bridge and Owen Hargreaves.
There had also been clear verbal instructions issues on Monday to all four players, stipulating that they would be granted Tuesday off but must return for duties on Wednesday morning. Onuoha, Bridge and Hargreaves were all present at the appointed time of 10.30am yesterday.
In what threatens to be a repeat of the evidential dispute which saw Tevez fined two weeks' wages for failing to warm up at Bayern Munich, City also say that MacBeath categorically rejected Tevez's request to return to Argentina, rather than refer it to the manager. There could be no ambiguity, they say.
It remained unclear last night precisely when Tevez might return, though there is little doubt that he should not have flown out of Britain until he had his manager's approval.
Tevez seems certain to be hit with another two-week fine – nearly £400,000 – though City will not act until they have heard his version of events first hand and the Premier League leaders have not yet ruled out more draconian penalties. Even Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association who represented Tevez in his disciplinary hearing over the incident in Munich, admits the striker has put himself in a difficult position.
"I feel very disappointed, to say the least," said Taylor. "The lad is digging himself a hole and it is getting deeper. If, as I have been informed, he was clearly told he was not to return to Argentina and he has flagrantly breached that instruction, that goes to the heart of his contract and could be gross misconduct in anybody's view." Independent
PFA chief Gordon Taylor 'disappointed' by Carlos Tevez absence
Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Gordon Taylor says he is "very disappointed" at Manchester City's Carlos Tevez for missing training and returning to Argentina.
City have instructed their lawyers to take action, saying striker Tevez, 27, had been refused permission to go home.
Taylor represented Tevez when a previous misconduct fine was halved.
But he told BBC Sport: "He is in danger of burning bridges rather than reconciliation."
City had found the former Manchester United striker guilty of committing five breaches of contract in a Champions League game against Bayern Munich in September.
Manager Roberto Mancini wanted to bring Tevez on as a substitute with 35 minutes left but he refused to warm up. He was immediately suspended for two weeks and had a four-week fine halved after the intervention of the PFA. On Tuesday, Tevez confirmed he would not appeal against the fine and City expected him to attend training on Wednesday.
However, BBC Sport has learned that Tevez's position is that he spoke to a member of the backroom staff and believed he could make the trip.
"This now leaves him very vulnerable," added Taylor. "He's diminishing his value by his actions at the moment.
"You just hope that he will soon try to get to a place of reality - otherwise he's on a self-destruct route. It could be a very difficult and complex legal situation.
"Sometimes sorry is the toughest word but it does put an end to difficult situations and stand-offs.
"Manchester City may well have a right to say 'your contract is cancelled and we are keeping your registration' and they could sue Carlos."
Most of City's players are away on international duty but the club say Tevez, who has not played since the 2-0 Carling Cup win over Birmingham in September, was due to remain in Manchester to continue his personal training programme.
The forward was not selected for the Argentina squad for the fixtures against Bolivia and Colombia, to be played in the next week.
After his client was pictured in Argentina, the player's spokesman Paul McCarthy told Sky Sports News: "He's gone to see his family.
"We've said all along that Carlos is aware of the situation in terms of getting back to his fitness. I can't really say much more until he's back in the country." BBC
Mario Balotelli has scarcely been in the Premier League for 18 months but has already managed to set fire to his own house, throw darts at a team-mate, visit a women's prison and engage in a running battle with Manchester's traffic wardens, but the Manchester City striker yesterday insisted he was not "mad". He did, though, concede that he does some "strange" things.
"I am not mad, not at all, even if sometimes I do things that are a bit strange," he said on international duty in Italy. Instead, he believes it is the English media who have ensured his off-field misdemeanours attract more attention than his on-field achievements. "They tend to talk more about my private life than what I do on the pitch," he said.
"This is normal, but I get tired of it. And if I did not do the things I do, I would be bored. English newspapers like The Sun are worse than the Italian ones. A newspaper that puts naked ladies on the front cover strikes me as being particularly ugly.
"For now, though, I am happy with City. If the time is right in the future, though, I would return to Inter, but I like AC Milan and will not hide that." Independent
MCF.net Thread: http://www.mancityfans.net/mcfnet/viewt ... 19&t=40807
Man City's chairman scores a hat trick
ABU DHABI // More than Dh400,000 was raised for cancer research in Italy at the inaugural Nazionale Piloti charity football game held last night at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium.
The game featured some of motorsport's superstars, led by Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso and the world champion Sebastian Vettel, facing off against some of the UAE's most talented players from the past and a number of international players led by Manchester City's chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, who scored an impressive hat trick as his side won 5-4.
All proceeds from the event were generated through sponsorship and private donations, and two cheques worth 40,000 euros were presented to the Nazionale Piloti chairman Mario di Natale.
The proceeds will be presented to the Biomedic Research Foundation and the Veneto Cancer Research Institute in Italy.
"With the kind generosity of our sponsors and those who have made individual contributions, we have been able to keep this as a free event for spectators," said Patrizia Azzariti, the founder and managing director of the event organiser DM Cube.
Formula One and football fans alike attended the match.
"This is a great opportunity to show my son some of the local and international football stars of the past," said Mohammed Hatim, a Mauritanian mechanical engineer in Abu Dhabi.
The home team included the renowned footballers Walter Zenga, Gabriel Calderon and Hidetoshi Nakata alongside the UAE 1990 World Cup team members Adnan Al Talyani, Mohsin Musabah and Abdel Rahman Mohammed.
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