Ex-Man City manager Roberto Mancini appears to acknowledge a 'double contract' with the club

Italy coach Roberto Mancini appeared to acknowledge that he had “a double contract” when he managed Manchester City as the English club faces the potential of losing its landmark case with the Premier League over alleged financial breaches.

But Mancini, who in 2011-12 coached City to its first Premier League title in a half century, also said that what is developing potentially into the biggest scandal in English soccer history is “not a problem that concerns me.”

Among the raft of charges that City has faced is an alleged failure to provide accurate details for player and manager payments between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons.

German magazine Der Spiegel in 2018 published evidence showing that Mancini doubled his base salary of 1.45 million pounds (now $1.9 million) for advising a club in Abu Dhabi.

Mancini led City to its first titles after Abu Dhabi’s ruling family bought the club in 2008, also winning the FA Cup in 2011. He was fired by City days after a shocking loss to Wigan in the FA Cup final in 2013.

Mancini was asked about his contract with City at Italy’s news conference in Turkey on Sunday ahead of a Nations League match Monday.

“It’s not a problem that concerns me,” Mancini said. “Anyhow, it’s not something new, because every four or five years this comes up. Manchester City is not guilty and the fact of having a double contract isn’t my problem but theirs, probably.”

Reports Friday said an independent panel had upheld nearly all of the 100-plus financial charges against City in a case that was initiated more than three years ago.

City did not confirm the decision, saying its case with the Premier League was “ongoing.”

City has always denied wrongdoing and Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak restated that stance in a letter to fans on Saturday.

“The Premier League process still has a long way to run, and our confidence and intent in proving the club’s innocence is just as strong as when this began,” Al Mubarak said.

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Italy head coach Roberto Mancini sits on the bench during the Nations League soccer match between Italy and Belgium in Rome, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

FILE - A general view of the Etihad Stadium ahead of the English FA Cup soccer match between Manchester City and Plymouth Argyle, Manchester, England, Saturday, March 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super, File)

Italy head coach Roberto Mancini watches during the Nations League soccer match between Italy and Belgium in Rome, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via AP)

FILE - A groundsman disinfects a corner flag ahead of the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Burnley at Etihad Stadium, in Manchester, England, Monday, June 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Martin Rickett,Pool, File)

Italy head coach Roberto Mancini reacts during the Nations League soccer match between Italy and Belgium in Rome, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via AP)

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary's Parliament voted on Monday to lift the parliamentary immunity of three lawmakers, including the country's prime minister, Péter Magyar, as prosecutors proceed with ongoing criminal investigations.

Prosecutors are investigating Magyar on suspicion of misdemeanor theft after he allegedly took a man’s mobile phone during a nightclub altercation and threw it into the Danube River in June 2024, nearly two years before his party won a landslide election that unseated former populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Magyar has denied that his conduct amounted to theft and called the case, which alleges damages scarcely exceeding $300, politically motivated.

He has also criticized prosecutors for requesting the lifting of his immunity at the same time as that of two former Orbán-era ministers, whose alleged crimes involved misusing tens of millions of dollars in public funds and accepting millions more in bribes.

Prior to the vote, Magyar told lawmakers that he had “not committed a crime, I take responsibility for all my actions.”

“Anyone who has nothing to hide comes forward openly,” he said, referring to his earlier request that his party vote in favor of lifting his immunity.

Immunity for members of Parliament, a common practice in European democracies, is designed to protect lawmakers from political persecution, allowing them to perform their duties and express opinions freely without fear of arrest or lawsuits from the government.

Hungary's former government under right-wing Orbán had sought to have Magyar's immunity lifted when he was a lawmaker in the European Parliament, but the body repeatedly refused.

Lawmakers on Monday also voted to suspend the immunity of two former ministers in Orbán's government who are suspected of, separately, criminal mismanagement of 17.3 billion forints ($53.6 million) of public funds and accepting more than 12 billion forints ($37.2 million) in bribes and kickbacks.

The cases involve some of the highest-level officials from Orbán’s government implicated in crimes now being investigated under Magyar’s new administration, part of a sweeping effort to uncover what the government describes as years of massive fraud and theft of public funds under Orbán.

Parliament on Monday lifted the immunity of Balázs Hankó, the former Minister of Culture under Orbán's government, who is alleged to have overseen the misuse of around $53.6 million from Hungary's National Cultural Fund.

Prosecutors allege Hankó personally intervened to award money from the fund — intended to support cultural projects — based on political considerations, and to cover campaign costs for Orbán's Fidesz party in the run-up to the election in April.

Prosecutors also suspect Orbán's former Development Minister Miklós Seszták, whose immunity was also suspended, of accepting more than $37.2 million in bribes and kickbacks connected to vehicle procurements under Hungary’s state bus company, as well as to state construction projects.

Lawmakers from Fidesz and its coalition party, the Christian Democrats, did not take part in Monday’s vote, calling the charges against their lawmakers political tyranny by Magyar’s government.

None of the lawmakers whose immunity was lifted have been indicted.

FILE - Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar holds an extraordinary press briefing following a voting on the 17th amendment to the Fundamental Law in the parliament building in Budapest, Hungary, July 13, 2026. (Tamas Purger/MTI via AP, File)