The full extent of Manchester City's legal dispute with Carlos Tevez can be revealed after it emerged the club had found him guilty of gross misconduct for going on strike and taken away £9.3m from the Argentinian in fines, lost wages and bonuses since the start of the season.
The league leaders stopped paying Tevez's salary at the end of November and fined him six weeks' wages, amounting to £1.2m, during a disciplinary hearing held on 21 December. Tevez immediately launched an appeal, despite having flown to Buenos Aires on 7 November and making it clear he would not return, but a subsequent hearing on 11 January upheld the decision.
The club expect Tevez to request a second appeal, this time in front of the Premier League, after setting Monday as his deadline to respond. They have denied him £6m in loyalty bonuses as well as fining him two weeks' wages for his refusal to take Roberto Mancini's orders when he was required as a substitute in the Champions League tie against Bayern Munich in September that accelerated the breakdown of his relationship with the club.
His salary freeze has cost him £1.7m so far and City's refusal to let him dictate what happens next was made clear when the club's owners in Abu Dhabi broke their silence on the matter to express their anger about what they regard as Milan trying to engineer a way to sign Tevez on the cheap.
Khaldoon al-Mubarak, the City chairman, said Milan had "developed a misplaced sense of confidence" and, speaking to the National newspaper in Abu Dhabi, added that they "would do better to stop congratulating one another and begin to look at how they would meet our terms".
Tevez, he said, "remains a player with contractual obligations to Manchester City for the next two and a half seasons and, unless we receive an offer that we deem appropriate, the terms of his contract will be enforced".
That threatens to leave Tevez unpaid and unable to resume his career unless Milan increase their offer from £20.9m to the asking price of £25m. It also brings back memories of the way the two clubs fell out over the aborted move for Kaká in January 2009, when City's then chief executive, Garry Cook, infamously accused the Serie A club of "bottling it".
On this occasion, however, the criticism comes directly from Abu Dhabi and, given the way City's owners are usually at pains to avoid becoming embroiled in public rows, it is telling that Mubarak is willing to speak so aggressively and openly. This is the first time he or anyone else from the Abu Dhabi United Group has criticised anybody in such a manner since buying the club in September 2008 and is a measure of their frustration and anger with Tevez, Milan and the player's adviser, Kia Joorabchian.
City's firm belief is that a deal is being brokered behind the scenes. Tevez and Joorabchian were photographed dining with Galliani in Brazil this month and Mubarak's annoyance was barely concealed as he talked of the way Internazionale and Paris St-Germain had "approached discussions [for Tevez's transfer] with us in good faith and it is always a positive experience to deal with people with a professional approach".
Uppermost in City's thoughts is that they should not allow a player who has behaved as badly as Tevez to dictate his transfer and Mubarak added: "As things stand, Milan isn't an option for Tevez. Mr [Adriano] Galliani [the Milan vice-president] and his advisers have developed a misplaced sense of confidence. If they want to be a consideration in this transfer window they would do better to stop congratulating one another and begin to look at how they would meet our terms."
City then released a statement confirming the latest stages of a dispute that leaves Tevez with the stigma of having been docked more money in fines than any other footballer in history.
"The club can confirm that Carlos Tevez was found guilty by a disciplinary hearing on 21 December of gross misconduct for serious breaches of contract and was fined six weeks' wages. Carlos elected to appeal the finding, which was dismissed by an appeal panel made up of club directors. He has until 30 January to make a final appeal to the Premier League."