The facts
Roberto Mancini, the current coach of the Italy national team, has commented on allegations of a 'double contract' during his time as manager of Manchester City. Appearing before Italy's Nations League match with Turkey on Monday, Mancini, 61, stated that the club is 'not guilty' of breaching Premier League financial rules, despite an independent commission finding them guilty of the majority of over 100 charges. Mancini, who managed City from 2009 to 2013 and led them to their first Premier League title in 2012, appeared to admit to having a 'double contract'. However, he insisted that the issue was not his concern, saying, 'It’s not a problem that concerns me.' He further elaborated, 'Manchester City is not guilty and the fact of having a double contract isn’t my problem but theirs, probably.' The allegations stem from evidence obtained by the German magazine Der Spiegel, which suggests Mancini doubled his base salary of £1.45m by undertaking advisory work for a club in Abu Dhabi. Mancini's tenure at City also saw them win the FA Cup, marking the first trophies under Sheikh Mansour's ownership. He departed the club in 2013 after a defeat in the FA Cup final.
Our take
Roberto Mancini stood before reporters ahead of Italy's Nations League game and confirmed he operated a double contract at Manchester City that doubled his 1.45 million pound base salary through advisory work for an Abu Dhabi club. He then declared the entire matter was Manchester City's problem, not his, and that the club remained not guilty even though an independent commission had already ruled them guilty on the majority of more than 100 charges.
The reversal is simple and brutal. Mancini collected the extra money, led the side to the 2012 Premier League title and the FA Cup under Sheikh Mansour ownership, then left after the 2013 final defeat. Years later he uses a pre-match press conference to announce that the secret second salary never touched him personally. The Der Spiegel documents supplied the evidence of the doubled pay. The commission supplied the guilty finding. Mancini supplies only the claim that none of it concerns him.
This produces a clean comic reversal built from his own words. The man who took the doubled salary now treats the doubled contract like an object he can hand back to the club the moment questions arrive. He won the trophies while the arrangement operated, yet the fallout belongs to ghosts. Every sentence of his response circles the same fucking move: admit the structure existed, pocket the benefit, then insist the consequences sit elsewhere.
The contradiction sharpens with each detail. Mancini managed the club from 2009 to 2013. The double contract ran during that period. The commission examined the evidence and reached its verdict. His only addition is the assertion that the problem is probably theirs. That single word probably turns the admission into pure deflection, as if the doubled pay were a stray invoice rather than cash he received.
The specific joke lands on the timing. Mancini waited until the commission had already spoken, then used the guilty finding itself as proof that responsibility had been transferred. He doubled his salary in secret, doubled his denial in public, and expects the arithmetic to protect him. The Der Spiegel evidence and the commission ruling do not bend to that shrug. Only Mancini pretends the second contract was a harmless side arrangement that never required his attention once the money cleared.
