Guilty Tevez back at City, faces record fine

Argentinian footballer Carlos Tevez on Thursday, returned to Manchester City for training all alone a day after the club found him guilty of breach of contract for which he may have to cough up a record fine.

Tevez said he was going to challenge the allegations and on return to Carrington Complex at noon after serving a two-week suspension and trained on his own with a club physio. Tevez was in any case not to work out with the club's first-team squad.

It is not clear whether Tevez will be kept away from the squad during the entire disciplinary process that now appears to take two months.

The club's initial findings found Tevez guilty of refusing to play against Bayern Munich whereas he is sticking to his statement that it was a "misunderstanding" and hinted that City manager Roberto Mancini should apologise for the damage he has caused to his reputation.

City has made it clear that it will not accept Tevez's explanation and that he has to face a disciplinary hearing before the weekend on the grounds that he has "a case to answer for alleged breaches of contract," the Guardian reported.

The club is sure that it has unassailable evidence against Tevez, not only from the statements from players and coaches, but also what he said in a TV interview after the game, admitting not in the right frame of mind to play.

Tevez will be confronted with the findings of the club's internal investigation wherein none of his teammates or officials has corroborated his claims as to what transpired in the Byrne match two weeks ago. He will be told that everyone went along with Mancini to say that the striker refused come out of the bench as a second-half substitute when the club was down 0-2.

The club has got in touch with the players' union, the Professional Footballers Association, to inform them that it intends to hand out Tevez a stiff punishment as the 2005 guidelines stipulate that any penalty must get the organisation's clearance and that means an further four-week suspension to add to the fortnight he has already undergone.

Add to it a fine of six weeks' wages at his 250,000 pounds sterling salary a week and that makes it the biggest fine a player ever received in Britain.

Tevez wants to lodge an immediate appeal, to be heard internally, and, if the case against him is upheld, he will go in a second appeal before a special Premier League panel. The entire exercise might take at least a couple of months.