Finance guru baffled by £3m Man City payment as new paper trail emerges
It is impossible to tell why Man City allegedly funded half of Roberto Mancini’s £3million salary through a fictitious consultancy contract.
So says finance expert Doctor Dan Plumley, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about new allegations surrounding the Italian’s time in Manchester.
Mancini, 57, managed City between 2009 and 2013, lighting the touchpaper on a glittering era of success by winning the FA Cup and Premier League.
Der Spiegel reported last Thursday that his contract was worth £3.2million per year, with £1.75 of that figure coming from Qatari media firm Al Jazira.
The German outlet, famed for its investigative work, published a 56-page file containing email chains and contract excerpts that support its claims.
City are also accused of artificially boosting their financial fair play standing through proxy sponsorship deals.
Plumley claimed that FFP could be one possible explanation for the alleged use of parallel contracts but that it is impossible to say for sure.
“I really don’t know for sure why they would do this,” the Sheffield Hallam University expert told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.
“I am looking at it from the point of view of cost. That goes back to FFP, which this investigation has always been tied up in.
“But, in truth, we don’t really know for sure. We are talking 10 years ago these allegations are coming from.
“The takeover happened a couple of years prior, which was just the right time for City because it was just before FFP regulations came in.”
City were fined and banned from Uefa competition for two years following an investigation into similar allegations in 2020.
But the fine was reduced and ban overturned after City successfully appealed at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.
In other news, Man City line up Aurelien Tchouameni bid after making Liverpool target No1 transfer priority.