London - AFP
Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez did not refuse to come on as a substitute during his side's Champions League defeat at Bayern Munich, according to his advisor Kia Joorabchian. Tevez is currently serving a two-week suspension while City chiefs carry out an investigation into manager Roberto Mancini's allegation that the Argentine star ignored his instruction to go on during last week's 2-0 loss in Germany. During a post-match television interview in Munich, Tevez appeared to admit his guilt when he said: "I did not feel right to play, so I did not." But his advisor Joorabchian, speaking at the Leaders in Football conference in London on Wednesday, claimed the translation of the questions put to Tevez were not accurate. "One thing you can't criticise him for is his commitment when he's on the pitch," Joorabchian said. "You can never criticise him for not wanting to play. "One of the biggest problems is that in a situation right after a game questions are asked and things are taken out of context. "If you don't have a very professional interpreter you have a problem. The interpretation was incorrect. Both questions and both answers from Carlos were interpreted incorrectly." Joorabchian appeared to blame Mancini for the situation as he claimed the Italian had struggled to deal with Tevez, who has been keen to leave for several months apparently due to family reasons. "This is a personal relationship between two people. We have seen this happen all through the summer," Joorabchian said. "We have seen (Cesc) Fabregas, (Samir) Nasri and (Luka) Modric - the list goes on - but they are the high-profile names who have handed in transfer requests, refused to travel, refused to play. That is a problem in general. "My opinion is they refused to play in a different way and those managers and the clubs handled them very differently. "Roberto has his style of management and it is very direct and very different to Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger." Joorabchian also insisted TV pictures that showed Tevez seemingly unhappy with Mancini's request to go on in Munich were confused by the City manager's row with Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko, who was angry at having been substituted. He said: "What happened on the bench in Munich was one of a lot of confusion as shown on the TV footage. The events of Munich have been judged prior to the real outcome coming out. "We see Nigel de Jong going on and Carlos still warming up and a God-awful row between Roberto Mancini and Edin Dzeko. You see this row carrying on and Carlos sits down. Carlos then stands up, there's more shouting and he sits back down. The next thing we hear is what Roberto says. "I have known Carlos since he was an 18-year-old and you cannot criticise his commitment in terms of wanting to play. "He has played at Manchester City having taken injections, with swollen ankles. He played at Corinthians where doctors have told him not to play." Tevez appears certain to leave City when the transfer window re-opens in January but Joorabchian refused to speculate on his future. "I cannot predict what Carlos wants to do. He has been clearly judged and condemned before the case has been fully looked into. I think the club and Carlos are in a very difficult position," he said.