City rocked by Mancini pay claims

information nor do they have a right to demand it from the news magazine. Moreover, given the fact City insist the emails have been obtained illegally by hacking, UEFA are concerned that could compromise any further action against the club.

Mancini and City may yet face questions from the UK tax authorities, who would be interested in the mechanics of the arrangement which saw the Italian, now manager of his national side, collect his money.

HMRC have recently launched a major investigation into tax avoidance and potential evasion in football, including many of the instruments which Der Spiegel allege have been used by City in order to massage figures.

Earlier this week they claimed City managed to hide payments to players for their image rights off the balance sheet by hiving off the ownership of them to a shell company.

And it has also been alleged that internal emails showed sponsorship contracts were wildly inflated in order to allow City owner Sheikh Mansour to pump extra cash into the club.

One email trail suggested a deal with Etihad Airways in which the airline contributed just £8m of a £67.5m sponsorship contract with the rest made up by Abu Dhabi United Group, the club’s parent company.

Another area which is thought to be causing UEFA’s lawyers some concern is the timings of the alleged financial manipulations with many of the details pre-dating the fine City have already received for trangressing FFP rules back in 2014.

An investigation saw City landed with a £49m fine from UEFA in 2014 – £32m of which was suspended – and hit with a reduction in their Champions League squad from 25 to 21 for the 2014-15 season.

A financial penalty or a footballing sanction such as a ban from Champions League action would be vigorously contested by City.