If Diego Maradona is serious about running for the FIFA presidency, he still has a lot of work to do just to get on the ballot.
The former Argentina soccer star with a history of on and off-the-field controversy would need to pass an integrity check and persuade five of FIFA’s member associations to nominate him.
Maradona’s desire to run for FIFA’s top job was reported by Victor Hugo Morales, a journalist close to the retired great.
Photo: AP
Morales, who hosts a show on the regional network Telesur, said on Twitter that Maradona told him he plans to be candidate.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter this month announced that he would be stepping down amid a US probe into US$150 million in bribes allegedly paid to top soccer officials.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro immediately called for Maradona to replace him.
Maradona has been a high-profile supporter of Venezuela’s socialist government and a sharp critic of corruption in soccer.
Maradona’s long list of provocative incidents would seem to go against the image that soccer’s world governing body would want to embrace as it digs out from its worst scandal.
Maradona has run into tax problems in Italy, where he has debts totaling tens of millions of US dollars accruing from his 1984 to 1991 stint playing with SSC Napoli.
He was accused of cheating when he punched in the “Hand of God” goal against England at the 1986 World Cup.
In 1994, Maradona fired an air gun at reporters and was given a two-year suspended sentence.
Last year, he slapped a journalist in the face and called him an “idiot” outside a theater in Buenos Aires.
Maradona was constantly criticized when he coached Argentina’s national team at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and was fired after they were beaten 4-0 by Germany.
His tumultuous personal life has often been a target for local media in Argentina.
In the often mysterious world of FIFA politics, it is far from clear which five of the 209 member federations would choose to nominate Maradona and why they would do it.
Cuba is perhaps one nation which could back him, having welcomed Maradona as a regular visitor to his friend Fidel Castro.
Venezuela is another ally because of Maduro’s vocal support.
It is difficult to see Maradona’s native Argentina nominating him, given the dire state of relations that existed between him and long-time national soccer federation president Julio Grondona, who died in July last year.
Grondona’s allies and entourage still have influence and a request to support Maradona’s nomination would likely be seen as an insult to the former strongman of Argentine soccer.
Maradona also appeared to wear out his welcome in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the only nation where he coached since coaching Argentina at the 2010 World Cup.
Many soccer officials who still support Blatter are unlikely to have forgotten Maradona’s language toward the FIFA president during his recent re-election campaign.
“I think we have a good chance to kick Blatter in the rear end — without a doubt,” Maradona said in April.
Even if Maradona secured the required backers, his problems to get on the ballot paper would only just be starting after the nomination deadline passed.
FIFA election rules require mandatory integrity checks for presidential hopefuls within 10 days before they are officially accepted as candidates.
The checks are overseen by FIFA’s election monitor — audit and compliance committee chairman Domenico Scala — and performed by the investigation chamber of the governing body’s ethics committee. That panel is chaired by Swiss former state prosecutor Cornel Borbely, who succeeded his former boss Michael Garcia in December last year.
Scala could also rule on whether Maradona fulfils the basic election requirement of holding official positions in soccer for at least two of the five years previous to election day. Maradona’s coaching spell with a UAE club lasted a little more than a year in 2011-2012.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later