Football’s culture is ‘lost’, says Rhinos’ McDermott

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini claimed that Tevez refused to come off the substitutes’ bench and play for the Premier League club in their Champions League encounter at Bayern Munich, which they lost 2-0.

Argentinian Tevez denied those claims yesterday morning, but former Royal Marine McDermott believes this sort of episode underlines what is wrong with the sport of football as a whole.

Last night, the player was suspended for two weeks as City’s legal team go through the small print of Tevez’s contract before deciding how to deal with the controversial Argentina striker.

As condemnation of the 27-year-old’s apparent refusal to play on Tuesday night spread far and wide, City took advantage of a planned day off for their first-team squad to give the whole furore some breathing space.

The gap has not been used to try and change Mancini’s mind about Tevez having no future – as he stated after the match. Instead, the club are ensuring any action will not be the subject of appeals by Tevez, as prima facie as the evidence appears to be.

Chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak will have the final say.

While the incident prompted vehement criticism of Tevez throughout football, the issue has also attracted attention outside the sport, with McDermott among those seeing the incident as indicative of the problems facing football as a whole.

“The culture of football, I think, is just that far lost. Wrong is wrong,” he said ahead of tomorrow night’s Super League play-off semi-final at Warrington Wolves.

“I’m probably out on my own, but I don’t think it’s anything to do with money.

“You could pay me £150,000 a week, but taking short cuts on my team-mates is still as wrong as if I get paid £150 a week.”

McDermott believes while players are in part responsible for the excesses that pervade football, the willingness of clubs and managers to indulge them is also a big part of the problem.

“They miss the point (in) soccer. Unfortunately, it’s not the players who are the issue,” he added.

“The owners of the clubs stand for it and the managers are at times as childish and headline-grabbing as the players; it seems to me some of them aren’t happy unless they’re in the press as much as those players.

“Top-line boxers get paid multi-million pound deals for world title fights. They cannot go into the gym and say ‘I’m not doing that today’.

“So it’s not money. There are examples of mega-rich sportsmen being disciplined. But football’s culture is just wrong.”

He added: “I hear some of these soccer managers talk about team spirit and work ethic and vibe and culture and honesty. I just think some of them haven’t got the faintest idea.

“There are some of those fellas who are sat in holes in Afghanistan and are absolutely bricking themselves, but the only way they get through that is because their mates cover their back and when their mate says ‘right, we’re on here’ they all have to stand up and go.”

The most likely scenario at Eastlands now regarding Tevez’s future appears to be a January sale, although that would leave the striker hanging around for another three months, bringing with it huge potential for disruption.

However, given the vast Abu Dhabi wealth bankrolling the entire City operation, it cannot entirely be discounted that the man who captained the Blues to their FA Cup triumph in May, the club’s first silverware since 1976, will have his contract cancelled, or that he will be left to fester until the end of his deal in 2014.

The claims Tevez made in his own statement on his conduct yesterday morning – that there had been a misunderstanding – have been ridiculed by senior City staff.

“I would like to apologise to all Manchester City fans, with whom I have always had a strong relationship, for any misunderstanding that occurred in Munich,” said Tevez. “In Munich on Tuesday I had warmed up and was ready to play.

“This is not the right time to get into specific details as to why this did not happen. But I wish to state that I never refused to play. There was some confusion on the bench and I believe my position may have been misunderstood.”

While Mancini clearly wants Tevez out, the player’s alleged behaviour could see City struggle to get their £40m asking price

Leading employment lawyer Howard Hymanson, head of the employment practice at Harbottle & Lewis, said the club could make up any shortfall by suing the player for damages.

Hymanson said: “If the club retains Mr Tevez’s services and looks to ship him out in the January transfer market, it faces the likelihood of receiving a significantly reduced transfer fee because of the player’s general conduct and overwhelming desire to be away from the club.

“Keeping Tevez therefore will mean that the club will, in any event, take a significant loss from what they may regard as being his true transfer value.

“However, it may be that the club chooses to make an example of Tevez and dismiss him for gross misconduct and sue him in damages for the losses which it would sustain on receiving no transfer fee.”