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Fat Argie Cheat Admits "I Cheated"
Former football star Diego Maradona did his bit to improve relations between London and Buenos Aires this weekend by once again admitting that he cheated to score a crucial goal against England in the 1986 World Cup quarter final.
Making a guest appearance on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's chat show, Maradona said that he punched the ball when it looked like the much taller British goalkeeper Peter Shilton was going to get a hand to it. After knocking it into the net, he encouraged his team-mates to celebrate the "goal", decieving the hapless referee and ensuring a place in British football's Hall of Infamy over twenty years later.
As the Guardian reports, this is not Maradona's first admission of guilt regarding the "Hand of God" goal (so called because he described it after the game as being scored by "the hand of God and the head of Maradona). However, the newspaper continues, the weekend's performance was served with a side helping of political intrigue. Chavez noted that the goal had "cheered much of Latin America" (Argentine pride was still smarting after Britain had re-taken the Falklands islands four years earlier) and encouraged his guest to give his career a political context.
Maradona, who is an admirer of Fidel Castro and has a tattoo of Che Guevara, was happy to oblige:
Maradona earned thunderous applause (the Guardian continues) when he said he loathed everything that came from the US. "I hate it with all my strength." He pledged allegiance to his host and to Cuba's Fidel Castro, who has arranged treatment in Havana for his addictions.
"I believe in Chávez, I am Chávista. Everything Fidel does, everything Chávez does, for me is the best."
OK, so footballer in idiotic statement shocker - particularly a footballer as drug-addled as the Argentine star. But Maradona was Argentina's star player and probably the world's greatest player at the time. He is still a national hero and, as we reported last summer, he has made suggestions that he is considering a career in politics himself. His performance on Chavez's Chat Show could act as a launch pad...
However Argentinians considering voting for their footballing hero would do well to bear in mind that the football pitch is not the only place where Maradona has cheated. He is still wanted in Italy for non-payment of a tax bill which is said to total €31 million.
A man of the people Socialist who believes he is above paying taxes? Fancy that!
