The madness of Maradona exposes FIFA's double standards - Martin Lipton's Big Lunchtime Read

By Martin Lipton in Laptop with Martin Lipton

Published 11:52 16/11/09

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He was arguably the greatest player of all time, the one man who can be credited with winning a World Cup single-handed.

But Diego Maradona’s ego is in danger of running further out of control now than at any time in his life - and while much of his self-destructive tendency are hilarious, we have reason to fear the ultimate outcome.

FIFA’s treatment of Maradona over his latest brush with infamy has proved it is not just the FA that bottles the big disciplinary decisions.

If the world and his mother were outraged by what Sir Alex Ferguson said about Alan Wiley the other week , you can only imagine the storm that Maradona’s outburst towards Argentine journalists would have provoked if he had been a Brit.

Let me be clear, what El Diego did was outrageous, disgusting and disgraceful - and by the sounds of things, he was even more scabrous in private.

It was, though, entirely in keeping with a loose cannon of a man primed to explode at every moment, and who is the single biggest bar to Argentina doing well in South Africa next summer.

The madness of Maradona has become one of the great stories of world football over the last year or so.

It is not just the 86 players he has selected for matches including the embarrassing 6-1 spanking by a Bolivia side that finished next to bottom of the South American qualifying group.

Nor is it the remarkable training regime, where Maradona has ordered that all sessions must take place in the afternoon - because he does not get up before noon!

Or even his ongoing spat with Pele, the pair of them finding new reasons to bring themselves into disrepute with every passing insult .

Every time he opens his mouth, it seems, Maradona digs a bigger hole for himself - and far from inventing a siege mentality in the minds of his players, he has actually created a genuine siege.  

His ban from next month’s World Cup draw is probably the best thing that could have happened.

Who knows what he might have said if his team are handed another “Group of Death“ scenario as in 2006, when they were drawn against Holland, Ivory Coast and Serbia?

Then again, we would all have enjoyed it! But at the same time, you begin to fear the next explosion could be the last one, with all that that would mean.

Of course, Maradona’s kid-glove treatment by FIFA was just another example of the double standards that do seem to apply when it comes to disciplinary bodies, especially when, in this country, we do tend to play by the rules.

Fergie’s touchline ban, weak as it was, was at least in accordance with the rules and regulations - even if they are not applied consistently.

But how many times has it seemed that English clubs are battered and clattered for any misdemeanour - while the behaviour of others is treated as if it does not matter.

Recall the scandalously pitiful £20,000 fine levied against Spain after the disgusting racial abuse hurled at England’s black players in 2003, the way Italy simply chose to ignore Fabio Cannavaro’s failed drug test - especially in comparison to the eight-month ban imposed on Rio Ferdinand for not taking a test in 2003.

And we have still not heard - and will not for a fortnight - the meaningless nature of the fine that will eventually be handed Ukraine for the fusillade of flares which saw the referee threaten to abandon the World Cup qualifier with England last month, a situation that surely contributed to Robert Green’s red card.

Not that Maradona deserves any sympathy, other than of the kind restricted to those you fear are heading for a self-directed abyss.

And what is nailed-on is that there will be another outburst at some stage in South Africa next summer. And one that will get the whole world talking about him all over again. Compared to Maradona, Jose Mourinho is a modern-day Greta Garbo.