Tevez Controversy

Sporting News- Tevez broke a fundamental rule of sport—that no individual is more important than his or her team—when he sat moodily on the bench at a time of dire need for Manchester City, seemingly refusing to play on Tuesday night in the Champions League.

A millionaire striking. How pathetic and how distasteful at a time when so many less fortunate than Tevez are feeling the economic pinch.

If City manager Roberto Mancini is telling the whole truth here and Tevez really did mutiny, then football has witnessed a saddening new low.

At his rampaging best, the muscular, boxy Argentine can turn matches around with his penetrating runs on goal. Given how well Bayern were playing and how dispirited Mancini's team looked, even Tevez might not have been able to rally City. But he is used to thriving in adversity. He grew up in a rough Buenos Aires neighborhood known as "Fort Apache." He carries a childhood burn scar on his neck with some pride, refusing to hide it with plastic surgery. Because of his background, Tevez should be more aware than most how lucky he is to be so handsomely paid for kicking a ball. Besides, his teammates needed him.

But astoundingly, said Mancini, Tevez's response when he called him was, "No."

"He refused to do a warm-up again and he refused to go on the pitch," the Italian said later, clearly fuming and shaken.

Manchester City's enigmatic striker Carlos Tevez has recently created a huge controversy through his behavior off the field during a match. According to his manager, Roberto Mancini, he refused to take the field during a pivotal Champions league match. The repercussions of his actions seem to be tremendous, as Manchester City is currently saying that they not only will not let him play until at least January, they also will attempt not to pay him throughout the suspension. This will not only affect the player, who will lose millions of dollars, it will affect the team as well who will surely miss out on Tevez' goal scoring abilities. Tevez is currently denying that he refused to play, but if this turns out to be true, it is a sad day for sports indeed.

My question is, how can a guy making millions of dollars playing a child's game actually justify refusing to enter the game when asked? He is one of the most highly paid players in the sport, and he somehow is right to say "No thanks" when told to warm-up? I think Tevez is totally in the wrong on this one.