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width="1" height="1" //divpDiego Maradona took a World Cup semi-final place from England in 1986
and today he took the urine. Argentina's new head coach told a captive audience in Glasgow that it
was hypocritical of the English to vilify him for the Hand of God when Sir Alf Ramsey's side had
bent the rules to win their own World Cup at Wembley two decades before. A warm reception is
anticipated for the 48-year-old when he steps into international management against Scotland
tomorrow night ./ppMaradona's accusation was delivered with mirth rather than menace as he held his
first besieged official press conference since being unveiled as the surprise successor to Alfio
Basile earlier this month. His first game brings him into confrontation with Terry Butcher, the
Scotland assistant manager who was part of the England team beaten by Maradona's duplicity and
brilliance in Mexico 22 years ago and who this week expressed a lingering wish to punch the former
Argentina captain for that infamous first goal./pp"I don't know why Butcher is taking this
attitude," said Maradona, rolling his eyes and feigning hurt when informed by a translator that
George Burley's number two will not be shaking his hand at Hampden Park. "I am fine with people who
are fine with me and I don't understand why Butcher takes this attitude. Let Butcher get on with
his life and I will get on with mine. If he doesn't shake my hand I will still be alive the next
morning. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it."/ppA female journalist then asked whether he
would not feel resentment at being cheated out of a World Cup quarter-final. Maradona paused, then
smiled, then drew a parallel between the Hand of God and Geoff Hurst's second goal against West
Germany in the 1966 World Cup Final. "I say to the young lady, England won a World Cup with a goal
that never crossed the line. It was plain to everyone who saw it that it never went in, so I don't
think it's fair that everyone should judge me when stuff like that went on." Warming to his theme,
Maradona held his hands a foot apart and added: "It was this much before the line. They just never
used to have action replays in those days." Cue raucous laughter from the Scottish and Argentinean
contingent inside the Radisson Hotel./ppEngland-baiting aside, there was a seriousness to
Maradona's address befitting a man with his troubled history and a manager who, prior to taking on
the role of leading one of international football's superpowers, had overseen just 23 games from
the sidelines as coach of Deportivo Mandiyu and Racing Club in the mid-1990s. The legendary player
dismissed the suggestion he has plenty to prove as coach of an Argentina side that has won only one
of its last eight matches and lost its last World Cup qualifying game to Chile./pp"I don't feel
under pressure at all," said Maradona, who will work alongside his World Cup winning coach, Carlos
Bilardo, in the national set-up. "If I hadn't accepted the offer I would have been a coward and I
didn't want to shy away from the challenge. We have a long hard road ahead of us, it is not going
to be easy, but the Argentinean national team needed someone to guide and help them and now we are
on a mission together. Hopefully we will have a collective experience on the road to South
Africa."/ppInexperience is not the only charge levelled against Maradona since his appointment,
with his temperament also on trial in the international spotlight. As a player he blamed a failed
drugs test at the 1994 World Cup on a FIFA-led conspiracy to hound him from the game while his
cheerleading displays at the 2006 World Cup in Germany are clearly ill-suited to the technical
area./pp"I am the manager of Argentina now and I'm not going to get involved in anything like
that," he said of football's politics. "As for the touchline, it depends on how the team are
playing. If they are making me feel safe and sound then I'll be fine. If they are making me nervy
then maybe I will behave like you saw in Germany."/ppMaradona scored his first international goal
against Scotland at Hampden Park in 1979 and flirted with the possibility of one day managing in
Britain. He also refuted the theory that great players do not make great coaches. "Cruyff showed in
his time with Barcelona, with what he achieved there, that that can be the case," he reasoned./ppIt
was when asked to describe his own personal journey, one that has entailed cocaine addiction and a
fight for his life in a Cuban clinic offered by Fidel Castro, that Maradona gave the shortest reply
of all. "I get up every morning, simple as that," he said. "I get up every morning."/pdiv
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