Tévez's record fine halved - Inside World Football

By David Gold

October 28 – Carlos Tévez’s record £1 million (€1.13 million/$1.61 million) fine has been halved after the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) refused to back the Premier League club’s reasoning for the penalty.

The PFA back the Argentine’s version of events, that he only refused to warm up, rather than to play, and therefore ruled that a four-week fine was too excessive.

The Premier League leaders have accused the PFA of a conflict of interest in the matter, saying in a statement: “Carlos Tévez has been personally represented throughout by the PFA chief executive [Gordon Taylor], on whose considerations the club has been informed that the PFA has made its decision.

“Manchester City is disappointed by the apparent PFA conflict of interest evident in this process.”

The PFA responded by pointing out that City’s own ruling stated that the fine was not for refusing to play, and that their punishment was therefore unreasonable.

“The PFA’s opinion, based on all the evidence presented, is that Carlos Tévez never refused to play for the club,” said the PFA.

“This is accepted by the club in that the charge against Carlos made at the hearing was not one of refusing to play.

“As such the PFA considers that there is no justification for a fine other than up to the prescribed sanction of two weeks’ wages agreed by the FA, the Premier League and PFA.”

City are in a difficult position with Tévez now, with the player weighing up whether to appeal against their decision.

The forward has been frozen out of Roberto Mancini’s first team plans since he was alleged by the Italian to have refused to play in a Champions League game against Bayern Munich in September.

He was suspended for two weeks and is now training with the reserves, but FIFA rules stipulate that if a player does not play in 10 per cent of their club’s matches then they can terminate their contract.

This would mean the former Boca Juniors and Corinthians star being able to return to South America.

Corinthians are keen to sign the player and were knocked back in their attempts to do so in the summer, but developments since then have reduced Tévez’s value.

As long as he is not in the City squad, his value will continue to drop, and it is something the Brazilian side are aware of, with their President Andrés Sánchez saying earlier this week that an €18 million (£15.8 million/$25.5 million) deal was in place, though this was hastily denied by the English team.

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