SOCCER:CARLOS TEVEZ'S volatile relationship with Roberto Mancini has descended into open hostility after a furious row between the Manchester City manager and captain at half-time of Sunday's 2-1 defeat of Newcastle United.

The argument began when Mancini overheard Tevez making a derogatory comment in Spanish and challenged him about it. The argument quickly escalated while other team-mates watched in silence as the pair lost their temper.

Tevez blamed Mancini for a poor first-half performance, complaining about his tactics and saying the Italian was getting it wrong by being too negative. Tevez has been playing as the lone attacker in a side featuring three holding midfielders and, despite scoring five times, the striker is believed to be increasingly frustrated about the lack of chances coming his way.

Mancini saw it as his authority being undermined and responded aggressively, reminding Tevez he was under orders to follow instructions and should not be questioning his manager in such a way.

Mancini had installed Tevez as captain at the start of the season, taking the honour away from Kolo Toure in a demonstration of his belief in the Argentinian. But their relationship has never been close and this row ends what has been an uneasy truce.

They clashed several times last season, most notably over a newspaper interview in which Tevez said Mark Hughes should not have been sacked and criticised Mancini’s training methods, accusing him of over-working the players by holding occasional double training sessions.

Mancini responded by summoning his player to the office to inform him he was unhappy about the remarks.

Nigel de Jong was encouraged by the news that the Football Association will not take retrospective action for the tackle on Hatem Ben Arfa, which broke the Newcastle United player’s leg, but he was dropped and castigated by Netherlands manager Bert van Marwijk.

An FA spokesman said: “If the referee saw it – as happened in this case – and dealt with it at the time then there is no scope for us to take it any further, in keeping with Fifa regulations.”

However, De Jong’s home nation have adopted a more hardline approach. Van Marwijk has removed the midfielder from his party for the Euro 2012 qualifiers against Sweden and Moldova.

“I just informed the squad and told him I saw no other possibility,” the Netherlands manager said. “I’ve seen the pictures back. It was a wild and unnecessary offence. He went in much too hard.”