Maradona admits to 'hand of God' goal against England

[naervod]

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - Argentinian football legend Diego Maradona admitted for the first time that he had deliberately used his hand to score a controversial goal against England in the 1986 World Cup.

The intervention, which Maradona infamously dubbed at the time as the "hand of God", was the first goal in a 2-1 win for Argentina over England at the knock-out quarter-final stage of the competition.

"I don't for a second regret scoring that goal with my hand," Maradona said on his own television chat show, called "Number 10 Night" in tribute to the days when he was lighting up football pitches in the number 10 shirt for Argentina.

Maradona said that the disparity in size between himself and England goalkeeper Peter Shilton meant he was never going to head the ball as it was played into the area.

The Argentinian maestro scored the goal by punching the ball into the net during a jump as Shilton leapt into the air towards the ball.

Maradona said that once the ball went into the back of the net, he looked at the touch judge and "saw that he was heading back to halfway" for the restart of the match.

"I said to my teammates to come and embrace me and celebrate the goal. They were a little hesistant. They came over to embrace me but it was as if they were saying: 'We've robbed them'," he said.

But Maradona, the Argentinian captain at the time, said he assured his teammates that "whoever robs a thief gets a 100-year pardon."

He was referring to British control of the Falkland Islands which lie just off Argentina and were scene of a bitter war in 1982 when the South Americans fought unsuccessfully to regain sovereignty of the islands they claimed as their own.

http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/050823/3/d4d3.html

Well, he finally admitted it. I think its another bad mark on Maradona's character, a cheater and a drug-addict. Its really hard for me to see how he uses political happenings to justify his decision to cheat.

 

[Gr3yL3gion]

Well, the English scored a controversial goal in the 60's final itself( which i think didn't crossed the goal line), so what goes around, comes around...

 

[naervod]

True, but wasn't that a refereeing error and not someone deliberately cheating to score a goal?

 

[rilnator]

Yeah, a lot of sport is about luck. A penalty should have been given or no penalty was awarded at a cruicial time. With most close games in any sport there is going to be a bit of doubt or controversy over the result- usually from the losing side.

What makes great teams is their 'win at all costs' attitude. Its not good that he openly cheated but history tells us that Argentina won the 1986 world cup. That is that.

 

[naervod]

I'm not denying that Argentina won, but isn't a part of the greatness of that WC win taken away by the fact that cheating was used to get there?

 

[Lambert Simnel]

I'm not denying that Argentina won, but isn't a part of the greatness of that WC win taken away by the fact that cheating was used to get there?

Yes, it is. On the other hand, there are few football competitions won without some element of gamesmanship (especially diving for penalties). There have been allegations in the past about collusion between the German and English referees in two of the Quarter-finals of the 1966 World Cup, and there were certainly bribe allegations surrounding the 1978 Argentina-Peru match.

In both of these cases, the alleged beneficiaries went on to win the tournament. Should they have a similar asterisk against their triumph ?

Are there that many completely clean World Cup wins ?

 

[willemvanoranje]

who cares if Maradona admits it.. everybody knew it anyway. He was a good player, but I've never been so fond of him. He was in Amsterdam just a couple of weeks ago, during the Amsterdam tournament. And well... I have to admit he was a great player.. but i don't know about the person Maradona.

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

It'll do nothing to quell the fatwa put on him by English football fans.

It's a shame that it is his 'hand of god' goal that everyone talks about since the other goal he scored against us was genius of the quality only he could provide.

 

[Hitro]

who cares if Maradona admits it.. everybody knew it anyway.

Exactly what I think about it.

And as for most if not all WC wins having something "unclean" about them, that might be if you look into every referee decision, as there are mistakes in every match.
But first of all nothing says that the winners never got to be at the negative end of that and still won because they simply were much better.
And second, more importantly, there is a difference between having the luck of getting an advantage through the referee and blatant cheating and then even gloating about it.

Though denial might be even worse, if one considers there are still Englishmen who say the ball was in in 1966...

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

Though denial might be even worse, if one considers there are still Englishmen who say the ball was in in 1966...

Doesn't matter how many Englishmen say it, just one Russian will do

 

[Hitro]

Doesn't matter how many Englishmen say it, just one Russian will do

Yeah, damn that allied conspiracy.

 

[Marla_Singer]

http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/050823/3/d4d3.html

Well, he finally admitted it. I think its another bad mark on Maradona's character, a cheater and a drug-addict. Its really hard for me to see how he uses political happenings to justify his decision to cheat.

Well, to be honnest, the thing you haven't said is that the second goal Maradona has scored during that game was one of the most beautiful goal ever scored in Football history ! That Argentina-England game will remain in the anthology of the World Cup.

When I was in Naples this summer, it was rather amazing to see how big Maradonna was still there. We were in 2005, however I've seen in the streets of the city pictures of Maradona put as icons with lighten candles in front of them.

No matter what we think about Maradona, we must admit he undoubtedly belongs to football History.

 

[naervod]

Of course I know about Maradona's first (actually second, I believe), it was gorgeous, and I think he made a huge contribution to Napoli. He definitely belongs in football history, but his reputation is not the best one.

 

[Nobody]

June 23, Estadio Benito Villamarín, Seville - Brazil 4 - 0 New Zealand


Im still disputing New Zealands 4-0 loss to brazil in the 1982 world cup.... (ok its the only time new zealand got into the world cup) hey but we scored 2 goals against scotland (5-2 we lost) and the USSR only beat us 3 nil. its pretty good...

 

[SonicX]

Is it ??
That's one the worst performances there were. If minor countries like Costa Rica, Jamaica and Slovenia don't go down that hard, why should the Oceanian ?

 

[rilnator]

Is it ??
That's one the worst performances there were. If minor countries like Costa Rica, Jamaica and Slovenia don't go down that hard, why should the Oceanian ?

I don't often stick up for Kiwis, but I will today.

If I was to hazard a guess i'd suggest it would have to do with the fact that soccer is probably the 10th most popular sport in New Zealand. Making the world cup was probably a huge thing for NZ back then and full cred goes to them for scoring the goals they did.

Its like me criticizing those 3 countries because they never suceeded at the Rugby world cup.

 

[SonicX]

Oh right ... I sometimes tend to forget some countries don't play soccer like we do
Making it was nice achievement, I will give that credit, but the performance at the cup itself was not that good. Let's see what Thun and that Slovak team do in the CL, I think it's comparable

 

[Stapel]

Oh right ... I sometimes tend to forget some countries don't play soccer like we do

You mean football, right?


Anyway,
I hereby admit 1+1=2.....

 

[willemvanoranje]

wahahahaha.. I don't even care if I understood you right, Stapel, but the way I understood it, it's funny hehehe... now if we go on counting, we realise SonicX won't understand.

 

[kryszcztov]

Like in that other thread about Armstrong... Maradona was a great competitor, but not that great of a man. I always "hated" him, I don't know why, and this hate was lengthened on Argentina as a football team... Bah, good he admitted it, and even said it was done on purpose, but what a laaaaame reason. When politics enter a stadium, it's not good.

Now tell me, don't wanna be chauvinist, but let's keep one example : of Maradona and Zizou as competitors AND men, who do I prefer ? Are they even comparable ?