Mario Balotelli had a 'behaviour' bonus in his Liverpool contract worth £1m

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FT Desk

Manchester City have officially been charged with 114 financial breaches by the Premier League and the consequences will be felt all around the game.

Stories of City's nefarious business dealings behind the scenes was first broken in the Football Leaks investigation by German outlet Der Spiegel.

Portuguese hacker Rui Pinto gained access to thousands of documents relating to football and dumped them all online for public consumption. The Man City scandal was just one of dozens of high-profile revelations that came from Football Leaks.

Not all of them dealt with illegality, and some are downright amusing.

One concerns football bad boy Mario Balotelli who, despite being supremely talented, courted plenty of controversy in his career.

Several of those controversies came in his spell with Man City between 2010 and 2013. He was involved in several disciplinary incidents, including being sent off multiple times, throwing a dart at a youth-team player, and breaking club curfews.

In 2011, fireworks accidentally caused a fire at his house, and the next day he scored against Manchester United and famously revealed a shirt saying 'Why Always Me?'

He also received a four-match ban for an incident involving Tottenham's Scott Parker.

Balotelli's relationship with manager Roberto Mancini was particularly difficult. The Italian striker was often criticised for his behaviour and lack of discipline, and in January 2013 the two became involved in a training ground bust-up.

This was effectively the final major incident before Balotelli left Man City for AC Milan later that month, but although controversy followed him everywhere, he remains beloved by some City fans, especially after he assisted that famous Sergio Aguero goal to win the club its first Premier League title.

Some eyebrows were raised, then, when Liverpool decided to bring him back to the Premier League in 2014.

After looking at his previous behaviour, the club decided to insert a clause into his contract that would entitle him to a £1 million bonus if he avoided being sent off three times in a single season.

The Times reported, via Football Leaks, that the clause read:

"If during each season of the term of this contract the player is not dismissed from the field of play on three or more occasions for violent conduct, spitting at an opponent or any other person, for using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures and/or for dissent by word or action ... then on the 30th June at the end of each season he shall receive a bonus payment of £1 million."

Should Balotelli have scored five goals across the Premier League and Champions League, he would then have been given a bonus of £50,000 per goal thereafter, but he only scored three across those two competitions in his first campaign before returning to Milan on loan.