Mancini appears to admit double pay deal amid Man City charges row

Roberto Mancini has appeared to confirm he held a second contract while managing Manchester City, as the club edges closer to defeat in its long-running financial dispute with the Premier League, according to Metro Football.

The Italy head coach, who led City to their first Premier League title in 2011-12 and an FA Cup triumph in 2011, was asked about the arrangement at a press conference in Turkey ahead of Italy's Nations League match on Monday.

'It's not a problem that concerns me,' Mancini said, according to Metro Football. '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.'

City are among the raft of clubs accused of failing to provide accurate financial information, with charges covering payments to players and managers between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons. German magazine Der Spiegel reported in 2018 that Mancini had doubled his base salary of £1.45 million by advising a club in Abu Dhabi.

Mancini was dismissed by City in 2013, days after a defeat to Wigan in the FA Cup final.

Reports on Friday indicated that an independent panel had upheld the vast majority of the more than 100 charges brought against City, in a case first opened more than three years ago. City have not confirmed that outcome, describing the process as 'ongoing'.

The full list of charges includes 54 counts of failing to provide accurate and up-to-date financial information between 2009 and 2018, 14 counts relating to inaccurate financial reports for player and manager compensation over the same period, five breaches of UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations, seven breaches of Premier League Profitability and Sustainability rules between 2015 and 2018, and 35 counts of failing to co-operate with Premier League investigations between 2018 and 2023.

Club chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak addressed the situation in a letter to supporters on Saturday, restating City's position. '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, according to Metro Football.

City have consistently denied any wrongdoing throughout the proceedings. The scale of the charges, and the potential punishment attached to them, has been described as one of the most significant cases in English football's history.