ROME (AP) — Former Manchester City manager and current Italy coach Roberto Mancini says he is unconcerned about being implicated in the financial rule-breaking scandal engulfing the English club, which on Friday said it was appealing the verdict.
In his latest comments on the issue, Mancini said: “It’s not a problem that concerns me” — despite appearing to acknowledge last weekend before a Nations League match in Turkey that he had “a double contract” as City coach from 2009-13.
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Italy's head coach Roberto Mancini gestures during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between Turkey and Italy in Bursa, Turkey, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Italy's head coach Roberto Mancini gestures during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between Turkey and Italy in Bursa, Turkey, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Italy's head coach Roberto Mancini gestures during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between Turkey and Italy in Bursa, Turkey, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
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)
Italy's head coach Roberto Mancini gestures during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between Turkey and Italy in Bursa, Turkey, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
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.
In 2018, German magazine Der Spiegel published evidence showing Mancini doubled his base salary of 1.45 million pounds (now $1.9 million) for advising a club in Abu Dhabi.
City has been accused of potentially avoiding paying about 12 million pounds ($16 million) in income tax and national insurance in relation to Mancini's salary, The Telegraph reported this week.
Mancini was asked if he was worried about the case ahead of Italy's match in France on Friday.
“No. I already spoke it about the other night. It’s not something that concerns me. It’s City’s problem, unfortunately," Mancini said late Thursday at the Stade de France.
“It’s not a problem that concerns me,” Mancini added, repeating himself. "Look, really. I already said it the other day in Turkey.”
In Turkey, Mancini said that "Manchester City is not guilty and the fact of having a double contract isn’t my problem but theirs, probably.”
Mancini led City to its first titles after Abu Dhabi’s ruling family had bought the club in 2008, winning the FA Cup in 2011 and in 2011-12 coaching the team to its first Premier League title in a half century.
He was fired days after a shocking loss to Wigan in the FA Cup final in 2013.
City has protested its innocence throughout the long-running case, which reached a milestone Tuesday when the Premier League published a verdict saying the club was “guilty of all charges related to serious breaches” of the competition’s financial rules from 2009-18.
See AP’s full soccer coverage here
Italy's head coach Roberto Mancini gestures during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between Turkey and Italy in Bursa, Turkey, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Italy's head coach Roberto Mancini gestures during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between Turkey and Italy in Bursa, Turkey, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Italy's head coach Roberto Mancini gestures during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between Turkey and Italy in Bursa, Turkey, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
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)
Italy's head coach Roberto Mancini gestures during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between Turkey and Italy in Bursa, Turkey, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
PARIS (AP) — Thousands of arrests, hundreds of injuries, schools set on fire in France. When the summer vacation ended and the new term started just a month ago, few could have imagined that the academic year would so quickly descend into nationwide student protests — and turmoil.
In a country beset by crises — both foreign and domestic — the eruption and rapid spread of protests by unhappy teenage high schoolers caught France off guard.
Friday brought more of the scenes that have dominated streets this week: vandalism, garbage fires, teens confronting and taunting police. Officers charging, firing tear gas and making more arrests. By early afternoon, the education ministry reported protests impacting 560 schools.
Taking grievances to France’s streets has long been a rite of passage in the country that spawned the French Revolution of 1789. To name just a few, there were the student protests in 1968, weeks of suburban unrest in 2005 and demonstrations in 2023 against pension reforms.
The students now barricading high-school gates and demonstrating with placards have shown the know-how of veterans — down to wearing masks and googles against police tear gas.
The timing of these protests — with France engaged in a presidential election race — sets them apart. Candidates campaigning to succeed President Emmanuel Macron in May have seized on the demonstations as a hot political issue.
And although constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term, Macron also joined the fray, speaking out against protest violence and political manipulation of the young demonstrators.
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Protests first erupted last week in the Paris region and spread nationwide like wildfire, even to smaller towns.
High schoolers are expressing broad grievances — mainly, schools are under-resourced, with dilapidated facilities and insufficient staff. Still, spending on education is one of the costliest items in the state budget that Macron's government proposed this week, with 65.5 billion euros ($74 billion) set aside for schools in the next year. That's more than the proposed 63.4 billion euros for defense.
Students also complain that school days, which often start at 8 a.m., are too exhausting and the university entrance system too complex. Some university students also joined the protests this week.
Macron's government has repeatedly said that it respects the right to peaceful protest. But it also issued written orders for police to break up protests that block access to schools and to rapidly put a stop to violence and vandalism.
Riot police have liberally used tear gas, wielded their batons and made arrests to disperse crowds.
Police and school staff have been targeted with explosive fireworks and other injury-causing projectiles. The interior ministry says acid has been hurled in some cases, and that those intent on destruction and looting have grafted themselves onto the high schoolers' movement and behaved like “criminals and vandals,” instead of “young people legitimately voicing their demands.”
Police made more than 1,900 arrests on Thursday, when 305 officers were hurt, the ministry said.
The protests and confrontations continued Friday, and unrest also spread to neighboring Belgium where about a dozen schools closed in Liege, a day after violence in the city and six arrests there.
There have been broader concerns in France that the schooling system is losing ground to those in other countries and failing in its mission to enable children from disadvantaged backgrounds to move up the social ladder.
Performance gaps are growing between highly advantaged and highly disadvantaged students, and overall scores in reading comprehension and mathematics have plunged, according to the latest PISA report, which evaluates students worldwide.
The government banned smartphones from high schools when the school year started in September, with officials arguing that banishing screens will improve learning. France this year also became the first country in the European Union to ban social media platforms for children under 15, but the country’s top court struck down that measure.
The unrest is sharpening political battle lines between presidential candidates.
Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon has positioned himself firmly on the side of the students and has decried police actions as “savagery” and repressive. Police have been suspected of firing firing crowd-control projectiles are suspected in some of the injuries that protesters have suffered.
Mélenchon's critics are accusing his France Unbowed party of stoking violence and seeking to score political points from the protests.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has called for broader police powers against rioters. Conservative former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, one of Le Pen's main challengers for the presidency, has condemned those who “break things, burn things, or assault people.”
Associated Press writer Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
Students hold a sign reading "Stop budget cuts" as they protest against under-resourced schools in front of a high school blockade, in Lyon, France, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)
Students block the entrance of the high school Arago as they protest against under-resourced schools in Paris, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Firefighters extinguish a fire as students protest against under-resourced schools in Lyon, France, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)
French policemen stand in front of burning garbage as high school students protest to demand more resources, in Lille, France, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
Students burn garbage as they protest to demand more resources for school, in Lille, France, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
